The Traveler
by Ultimate Alcatraz
Summary: After his crushing defeat and trained by the Sage of the Six Paths himself, Naruto and his partner Kurama embark on a journey to find the four Keys to defeat the Ten Tails in four different worlds. He will meet new allies, new enemies as well capturing the hearts of a few females along the way. Naruto/multi-crossovers. Naruto/Harem. New Poll is posted! Vote Now!
1. The Meet Between the Sages

03/25/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 1: The Meet Between the Sages

_Desecrated Field (Night)_

Time seem to pass slowly around the area. The air is filled with blood and agony. The surrounding area is filled with 5 feet craters, trees completely destroyed. In the distance, there stands a monstrous figure with one huge eye and razor sharp teeth. The eye has multiple Sharigan pupils. But the most prominent feature of this creature is its ten tails.

This creature was the Ten Tailed Beast, the most powerful demon to exist in the ninja world. Its power knew no limits and was thought to be invincible, but that changed when one man came across the demon. That man was the Sage of the Six Paths, the Father of All Ninja.

In top of the Ten Tails' head stand two very recognized ninja; Obito Uchiha and Madara Uchiha. The former was previously thought to have died in the Third Shinobi World War, but was revived by an elderly Madara Uchiha before his death.

Obito planned to revive the Ten Tails and seal it in himself, making him its jinchuriki. However, the beast is incomplete as it is missing two Tailed Beasts; the Eight Tails and the Nine Tails. The two are currently sealed into their jinchuriki; Killer Bee of the Hidden Cloud Village and Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf Village.

The former and the latter are currently 40 yards away from their enemies with the Allied Shinobi Forces. Naruto's attire changed when he transformed into his Tailed Beast Mode, a form he gained after he and Kurama, the Nine-Tails' true name, began to work together and diminished the animosity between them.

The Hero of the Hidden Leaf was transferring Kurama's chakra to the Shinobi Forces via Shadow Clones and the Chakra Transfer Technique. Now the entire Force gained a tailless Version 1 Chakra cloak, similar to a Jinchuriki's.

Naruto looks at the Ten Tails with the Shinobi Force behind him, ready to fight. "Attack!" Everyone followed the blonde Jinchuriki who readied Twin Rasenshuriken in his hands.

Shikamaru and the Nara clan bind the Ten Tails' movements with Shadow Posession Jutsu with Choji and his fellow clansmen restricting the beast's arms.

Obito commanded the beast to defend with its tails, blocking the shinobi's way.

"I don't think so!" Naruto with Lee on his right jumped into the air and threw his first Rasenshuriken, destroying the first five tails and was about to throw his second, but he felt a crack and sharp pain.

"What?" He looked at his left shoulder. "_That's right. It's dislocated from that last attack."_ He see Hinata behind him.

"Gentle Fist." Hinata struck Naruto's shoulder, putting it back into place.

"Thanks, Hinata." Naruto launched his second Rasenshuriken at Obito while Lee jumped higher, using Guy to propel himself. "Kick some butt, Lee!"

The Green Beast of the Leaf did that as he roundhouse-kicked Madara with great force, shattering his midsection while the Rasenshuriken made its way at Obito.

The Uchiha phased his stomach, making the chakra shuriken pass through him with no harm, at least that what he though. "Your attack failed on me Uzumaki."

Naruto smirked. "Is that so? Look behind you." The Uchiha looked behind to see the link between him, Madara, and the Ten Tails is severed.

Madara quickly regenerated and he and Obito jumped off the beast's head, landing on the ground. Soon the beast was overrun with the Shinobi Forces attacking it with their individual techniques. Naruto landed on the ground, standing 25 yards away from the two Uchihas.

"You two are no longer controlling the Ten Tails. It's over," stated Naruto firmly, slowly getting into a stance.

"It's not over until you're dead." Obito getting a stance as well did Madara readying his weapon in a reverse grip.

Naruto was about to charge at them when a shadow loomed over the trio. The shinobi looked up to see a foot looking to smash them and jumped backwards away to see the foot smash the spot he and the Uchihas previously were.

"What the…?" The Sage saw the Ten Tails' eye staring at him with its mouth slightly open, drooling. That was a sight he won't forget for a while.

"Ew, that's gross." Naruto shuddered slightly as he watched his fellow ninja attack the beast, not knowing Obito phased out of the ground behind him to strike. Obito extended his right arm, attempting to suck Naruto into his Kamui dimension.

As soon he made contact with the young blonde, Obito thought one thing. "_Victory is mine!"_

Suddenly, the young Uzumaki disappeared, shocking the Uchiha. "Where did he go now?" He waited while using his eyes to search for his enemy until he got a hit. He turned around to see the jinchuriki with a readied Rasengan.

"Rasengan!" Naruto thrust his signature jutsu as he got into close range of the madman, but expectantly his attack passed through him. Obito put his right hand on the blonde's left shoulder, attempting to suck him with his Kamui, but Naruto quickly used his speed, once again, to escape the attempt.

The Uzumaki reappeared 40 yards away from Obito, analyzing his next plan of attack. "_Okay. Things are going a little easy, now that he and Madara are no longer in control of the Ten Tails. I'll try to catch him off guard with my speed."_

"_That won't work!" _Naruto recognized the voice when he heard it.

"_Kurama, what do you mean it won't work?"_

"_You've already tried that just now and look at the result. He knew where you were going to appear and he phased through your attack. You need to come up with an unpredictable attack."_ Naruto thought over Kurama's observation and knew his partner was right. He does need to think of a plan to catch Obito and Madara off guard, speaking of which…

"_Wait a minute, where's Madara?"_ Naruto realized the elder Uchiha was nowhere in sight. He searched for his other enemy and prepared himself for an attack at any time.

The Sage knew the elder Uchiha was no pushover when he used one of the First Hokage's Wood Style techniques and he deflected his Mini Tailed Beast Ball. "Come on, where is this guy?"

"_You're not using your ability to find him."_ Naruto was confused at this.

"_What ability?"_ The fox sweat-dropped at this and pinch his nose bridge.

"_Your Negative Emotions Sensing ability can detect hatred, malice and other negative thoughts._

"_Oh yeah, I forgot about that."_ Naruto chuckled a little.

Kurama sigh._ "Sometimes I wonder if there's a limit to your denseness."_

"_Hey, I'm not that dense!"_

"_Stop arguing with me and focus on the battle, Naruto!"_ That statement reminded the blonde that he is on a battlefield, facing two madmen and the most powerful demon.

He closed his eyes and focused on the emotions, searching for Madara. Moments later, his eyes open suddenly as he turned to his left and saw the undead Uchiha with a stretched right arm pointed at him.

"Oh crap."

"Universal Pull!" Naruto felt himself being pulled by an invisible force, heading towards Madara.

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Damn that Rinnegan!" The Sage quickly countered by creating a chakra arm from his shroud and commanded the arm to grip the ground, stopping himself. A moment later, the jutsu wore out and Naruto dispelled the arm and landed on the ground.

"I must say you impress me, Jinchuriki. I guess I should've expected that from someone distantly related to the Senju clan." Madara with displeasure in his tone.

"I guess you shouldn't underestimate your opponents, despite of their age." Naruto remarked.

Madara smirked at this, then looked to his right to Obtio beside him, and looked back at the boy. "You can't beat us. No matter how hard you fight, you will lose."

Naruto chuckled. "I'll keep fighting until the both of you are gone."

Obtio laughed a little at the statement. "You forgot about one more person."

Naruto had a puzzled face. "And whose that?" His answer was given when one of the tails of the towering demon is already on top of him. "Crap!"

A shockwave occurred followed by dust covering the area where the whiskered ninja was standing. Soon the dust cloud cleared revealing the tail smashed into the ground or so it seems…

The dust cleared under the tail, revealing the Leaf shinobi with both of his arms outstretched overhead, carrying the tail. He was in a 5-foot crater with spider cracks emitting from the edges.

"Damn, this thing is heavy!" Naruto complained about the weight of the tail. He felt his arms and legs slowly starting to burn despite being in Tailed Beast Mode.

"_Naruto, look out!"_ He heard the fox's warning. The Sage looked forward to see the Uchihas sprinting towards him, ready to attack. "Damn, my arms are occupied at the moment right now."

Obtio and Madara got within 5 yards within their enemy with one thought in their minds. "_You're dead!"_

Suddenly, two certain female ninja in Version 1 cloaks appeared on top of the tail and jumped into front of the Uchihas' way.

"Cherry Blossoms Punch!"

"Gentle Fist: Twin Lion Fists!" Naruto smiled when he recognized the names.

"Sakura! Hinata!"

The two ninja quickly sidestepped out of the way, causing the female duo to miss. The hate-filled men leapt backwards, getting 15 yards away from the trio.

Naruto chuckled. "Nice to see you girls stop by." He grunted as he tries to comfort his arms from the weight.

"Ha, Can't let you have all the fun." Sakura remarked, looking at her knuckle-headed friend. She couldn't believe that the man she's seeing is completely different from the boy she met 2 years ago and now she's fighting to keep him safe.

"Hey, mind if we join you?" shouted a voice. Sakura and Hinata, except Naruto who was little occupied, looked and saw the rest of the Konoha 11, in their Version 1 chakra cloaks, on the tail. They jumped down and landed next to the two kunochi, surprising Naruto.

"Guys, what are you doing here?"

"Really? You're asking us that?" Shikamaru sighed.

"We're here to help you beat these guys." Choji bumped his fist into his opened left palm. The rest nodded with the statement and Naruto sighed.

Then the group heard chuckling and looked at Obito who had a smirk on his face. "You really think you and your pathetic friends will stop us now? You really are a fool, Naruto."

"Ha, like I said to Madara; 'You shouldn't underestimate your opponent, despite the age.' " The Konoha 11 smirked and nodded in agreement and got into their respective fighting stances.

"You Leaf ninja are really starting to annoy me. I'll finish all of you now." Madara finished doing a hand-sign.

Naruto grunted, focusing all of his strength into his arms and threw the tail. This action shocked his friends as they watched the tail passed over them, heading towards the Uchihas

"Damn that brat!" Obito gritted his teeth as he and the elder Uchiha disappeared, dodging the tail. The impact created another shockwave, causing some of the Konoha 11 to stumble.

Everyone looked at Naruto with surprised faces.

"What?" Naruto puzzled.

Choji chuckled. "You really are the strongest of all of us, literally."

The blonde chuckled. "Thanks, but we need to focus now, Choji. Our 'friends' are back." Naruto pointed his finger at the tail.

Everyone looked to see Obito and Madara standing there, with the latter with the same hand-sign and now the former performing the sequence of hand-signs until he stopped at the same sign.

"Now where were we? Oh yes. I remember…We're going to destroy you!" The young shinobi group got ready to anticipate whatever their enemies are going to throw at them.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"FIRE STYLE: DRAGON FLAME JUT—" The duo stopped as they saw blood spurt out of nowhere and Obito felt pain in his stomach. They look down to see a huge claw and looked at the corner of their eye to look the Ten Tails, staring at them emotionless.

"What?" asked Obito weakly, spitting out blood from his mouth.

"It must think we're its enemies. I can't believe I let my guard down around that demon." Madara attempted to move since he'll just regenerate his body but he couldn't move…at all.

"Why can't I move?" Madara was confused by the occurrence.

Meanwhile, the Konoha 11 was trying to process what just happened with Naruto and his partner trying to make the most sense.

"_Why did the Ten Tails attack them? I thought it was fighting alongside with them. Kurama, any theories?"_

"_None so far, but I fear something is going to happen. So keep your guard up."_

"_Right, stand by incase we need to go full Tailed Beast Mode."_

"_Understood."_

Naruto ended the conversation and continued to stare at the Ten Tails who brought the two Uchihas near its face. He heard Madara ordering the beast to release them but to no prevail.

"Release us!" Madara barked another order.

"**You are not in command here, mortal."** Everyone's eyes widen, including Madara and Obito.

"It can talk?!" The Konoha 11 exclaimed.

"_Of course it can talk, what did you expect it to be? A mute?"_ remarked Kurama with Naruto sweatdropped at this.

"Why did you attack us?" asked Obito weakly. The Ten Tails looked at him.

"**I have plans of my own and I will not allow any mortals to control me. I'll rule this world again with no one to stop me this time."**

Everyone shuddered at the voice of the demon, feeling the demonic energy it's emitting.

Madara and Obito looked at each other and gave each other a subtle nod and looked at the Ten Tails. They lift their right arms, but Obito had difficulty due to the claw in his stomach.

"Shinrai Tensei!" The force of the powerful jutsu collided with the demon's face, creating a shockwave and a dust cloud. Naruto felt the attack was at its full power.

The Konoha 11 widen their eyes at the notion and had one thought in their minds. "_Did it work?"_

They got their answer when the dust cleared, revealing the demon still holding the Uchihas captive. The two megalomaniacs eyes widen when they see the Ten Tails didn't appear to be fazed by their coordinated attack.

"What?! It doesn't even have a scratch," asked Madara.

"**The last time I've encountered that attack was when I fought that cursed Sage of the Six Paths and the attack you two threw at me… that's nothing compared to that mortal's attack."**

Madara and Obito were shocked as they're told that their current power was not comparable to their ancestor's. The latter soon spit out more blood as he's slowly dying.

The Ten Tails scoffed. "**You two are pathetic. Thought that if you can control me, even briefly, you can rule the world and nothing can touch you. Now…allow me to dispose of you two."**

Obito widen his eyes as the demon opened his mouth, saliva dripping. Then the latter saw a dark energy entering the beast's mouth while, at the same time, he was feeling a lot weaker than he did before and was wondering why.

"_Unless…"_ The Uchiha looked at his stomach to see the dark energy traveling from him, up along the beast's arm and into its mouth. "No" Obito said weakly as he realized it's his chakra.

The Ten Tails continued devouring the mortal's chakra until the said latter's body started to decay. Soon the body of Obito Uchiha was gone, turned into dust.

Madara and the Konoha 11, plus the Shinobi Forces, were appalled by the display of inhumane nature. Then the Ten Tails turned to the elder Uchiha who realized it's his turn.

"You can't kill me. I'll just regenerate since I'm already dead," said Madara arrogantly. The Ten Tails smirked at this which worried the shinobi.

"**Is that so? Then I'll make you there's no trace of your presence anywhere. Not only I devoured your fellow clansmen's chakra; I devoured his soul!"** Madara felt fear for the first time in a long time when he heard of the revelation. Then he felt his chakra being pulled from his body, soon his eyes turned blank followed by his body being disintegrated into dust.

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what happened; his enemies, two of the most powerful and toughest shinobi he ever faced, was defeated and gone forever. He gulped when the demon set its eye upon him and his friends.

"Guys, get ready. I have a feeling this is going to get a lot more difficult." Naruto stated after getting into a stance, so did his friends. "_Kurama, we need to go all out and push our limits farther than before."_

"_I know"_ The fox growled at the notion.

The Ten Tails was about to speak but he heard a man called out its name and turned to face the Shinobi Forces.

"Come on, everyone! Bombard it with every jutsu you know!" shouted a Nara clansmen.

"RIGHT!" replied the entire Forces. They attacked the Ten Tails with every Fire Style, Water Style, Earth Style, Wind Style and Lightning Style offensive jutsu in their arsenal while in the Version 1 chakra cloaks surrounding their bodies.

The multi-tailed beast grunted in response from the contact by the coordinated attacks which created a huge dust cloud, covering the demon. The barrage kept on going for a few minutes, surprising the Konoha 11.

"Do you think they can land a scratch on him?" asked Ino.

"Perhaps… I mean they're unleashing everything they got and there's no way even that beast can't leave unharmed," replied Kiba. Shikamaru, Naruto, and Kurama thought otherwise and knew that the power boost they have isn't enough.

Finally the Forces ended their barrage with the chakra cloaks dissipated, ending empowered state. All of the shinobi felt immediate exhaustion and wobbled a bit, then fell on their knees, panting heavily but had smirks on their faces, thinking that they've won.

The dust cloud was slowly dissipating to the point where a huge shadow appeared, shocking everyone excluding the Uzumaki, Nara, and Kurama. The cloud was blown away by the wind, revealing the intimidating beast who didn't look fazed by the barrage and had a bored expression on its face.

"NO WAY! THERE'S NOT ONE SCRATCH ON HIM!" exclaimed a shinobi with fear on his face.

The Ten Tails then look at the Alliance and laughed a bit, making everyone shuddered and after it stopped, he opened its mouth, gathering black and blue chakra and condensing it into a ball. Everyone's eyes widen when they realized it's another Tailed Beast Bomb.

Naruto jumped in front of his friends, crossing his arms. "Guys, get ready!" The Konoha 11 complied and readied them-selves for what's next.

"_Kurama, we need to go full Tailed Beast Mode now!"_ But they were too late to react or transform.

The Ten Tails finished gathering enough chakra and prepared to attack the annoying threat. **"Farewell, pests!"** He unleashed the bomb, the chakra beam making its way to its targets who are stunned to do anything. The contact created an enormous dust cloud and a huge shockwave. The dust cloud soon dissipated again, revealing a huge trench-like crater that looked endless.

The Ten Tails chuckled at his work then looked at the young shinobi group, smirking at them. **"I will kill you next, but not before I take what's mine,"** he pointed his claw at Naruto, **"you and that other jinchuriki have the last remaining parts of chakra. I will tear them apart from you and when I absorbed them, I will be complete."** The Konoha 11 glared at the demon, despite their fear, and got into their fighting stances.

"**That's so cute, you fighting me. There's nothing you can do to hurt me. I'm invici-"**

"Shut your trap!" exclaimed a pissed Naruto with clenched fists. His friends looked at their blonde friend, shocked by the latter's action and felt fear once again as they stared at the beast.

The demon then chuckled after a few moments and stared at Naruto. **"No one has defied me since that cursed Sage. You remind me of him, both your appearance and spirit… I will crush that!"** After that, he charged at the shinobi group who were surprised by the demon's speed despite its size.

As the Ten Tails was near them, he felt a sharp punch to the face and was sent skidding the ground, putting great distance between him and its targets. He looked for the one who punched him and saw the Eight-Tails towering the shinobi and smirked. **"You actually caught me off-guard there, but I assure you…that won't happen again."**

Naruto looked up at Bee and smiled. "Finally recovered your strength, huh?" he received a nod from his fellow jinchuriki, then look at his friends. "Guys, it's been an honor fighting alongside you and…having you guys as my friends. I don't regret that and I never will." Everyone smiled and some of them had tears in their eyes, but quickly wiped them off.

"We're glad you're in our lives and we don't regret it," said Sakura with everyone nodding in agreement. Naruto nodded back and turned to face the Ten-Tails.

"Okay, Ten Tails. You want to rip out Gyuki and Kurama from our bodies? you'll have to take them by force!" With that, Naruto went into his full Tailed Beast Mode, his shroud enlarging into Kurama's overall form with the same seal around it and became translucent.

The Konoha 11 are in awe as they're on top of the fox with Sakura noticing Naruto inside the fox's head. Naruto and Kurama looked at Gyuki and Bee who looked back at them, then looked at the Ten Tails.

"**Very well, then. I prefer to do the hard way, anyway."** The Ten Tails charged and so did the two Jinchuriki. The Jinchuriki, Kurama, Gyuki and the Konoha 11 yelled as they prepare to fight to the death.

_10 minutes later_

"Argh," exclaimed Naruto as he landed on the ground hard. He was lying in a 10-foot crater and he opened his eyes slowly, feeling pain all over his body with multiple bruises and scratches everywhere. Failed to notice that he's no longer in Tailed Beast Mode, the Sage slowly got up, ignoring the immense pain and walked out of the crater, stumbling as he got out and looked at the sight that appalled him.

His friends' bodies laid on the ground with pools of blood surrounding each one of them. Naruto had tear in his eyes as he stares at them, then look to see the Ten Tails 30 yards away, devouring Gyuki from Bee's body soon his chakra.

"No…Killer Bee," said Naruto weakly as the rapping ninja was no more and the demon looks at Naruto.

"**See what happens to those who defy me? They die. You and your friends chose this and now you must pay the consequences and your payment will be the last bit of my chakra inside you."**

Naruto gritted his teeth as the towering demon gets closer to him. He remembers the last 10 minutes of combat; he, Kurama and their fellow comrades charging the demon. Both sides colliding, fighting tooth and nail with the last remaining Shinobi Forces pushed to their limits. They'd thrown everything they got and it still wasn't enough, even with the link between Kurama, Naruto and the Konoha 11.

The Sage was panting heavily as the Ten Tails stopped in front of him, 15 yards away and towering him, grinning at him. "**Don't feel so bad, pest. I'll make your death quick and painless."** Naruto clenched his fists tightly to the point of making them bleed and glared at the Ten Tails.

"_Kurama"_

"_Naruto"_ replied the fox.

"_What do you say we go out with a bang?"_ asked Naruto, making his partner smirk.

"_You bet…brat"_ making his jinchuriki smirk as well. The Ten Tails caught this and asked.

"**Why you're smirking when you are about to die?"**

"Because I have no regrets," Naruto transformed into his Tailed Beast Mode for one final time, "and I won't stop fighting." The Jinchuriki outstretched his right arm overhead and started channeling chakra into his palm. The chakra soon turned into a large shuriken with an orb in the center and it gave a loud bell-like screech. "This is my final technique. Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"

The Ten Tails was mildly impressed by the mortal's stature and fighting to the death. The demon smirked at this and said: "**Very well. I was going to rip my chakra from your body, but I guess I could wait for a while for it to regenerate. Farewell, Jinchuriki!"** The beast opened and channeled its chakra in front of its mouth, preparing another Tailed Beast Ball.

Naruto responded by putting all of his and Kurama's strengths into the jutsu, making larger than before. The two technques was affecting the area; making the ground shake, rocks floating in mid-air and spider cracks in the ground near them.

"_Kurama…"_ said Naruto.

"_Yes, Naruto?" _asked the Tailed Beast.

"_I'm glad you became my friend and I don't regret it,"_ replied the whiskered ninja, getting a growl from the fox.

"_So am I, Naruto. So am I,"_ replied Kurama. The two beings felt their techniques ready and stared at each other.

"**Farewell, pest!"** The Ten Tails unleashed the Bomb, heading at its next target. Naruto gritted his teeth and with one last cry of exertion, he threw the shuriken at the incoming jutsu with the shinobi exiting out of Tailed Beast Mode.

The Bomb and Rasenshuriken collided with the latter jutsu expanded widely upon impact. The shuriken held on for a few minutes until the Bomb blew through it, heading towards the Jinchuriki.

"_Good bye, Kurama,"_ said Naruto as the Bomb got closer.

"_Bye, Naruto Uzumaki,"_ replied Kurama sadly as he can't believe that he's about to lose his only friend.

The young Uzumaki closed his eyes, ready for the impact. Unbeknownst to the shinobi, strange lights were swirling around his body, soon the light consumed him and shot upwards to the sky. The demon's jutsu created another shockwave and another huge dust cloud as it made contact with the ground and incinerated the Konoha 11's bodies.

The Ten Tails was laughing madly as the cloud was blown away by a hard wind. "**Now…No one can stop my reign this time!"** The demon continued to laugh as the last defense was gone or so he thought…

_Unknown Realm_

Naruto waited for the Bomb to make contact with his body, but it didn't come. He opened his eyes to find himself in a strange white room that seem to go on for miles with nothing in sight.

"_What the…Where am I?"_ asked Naruto to himself.

"Naruto" said a voice. The shinobi turned around and his eyes widen when he saw his partner, Kurama, towering over him.

"Kurama?! What are you doing here?! What am I doing here?!" Naruto asked his partner, starting to panic.

Kurama's eyes widen when he recognized the place they're currently in when he looked at the floor; two circles with symbols around them and he finds himself sitting in one of them. "Naruto, I know where we are. We're in…" The fox was cut off as his jinchuriki was panicking around the room, making him sweat-dropped and irritated.

"Will you stop that and listen to me?!" commanded Kurama, making the blonde stop with the beast pinching his nose bridge, sighing.

"Okay, so you know where we are? What is this place?" The Tailed Beast was about to respond but he gasped and his eyes widen when he looked behind his jinchuriki, who caught the expression.

"Kurama, what is it?" He received no answer and turned around to find a man standing in the center of the circle. He had short light-coloured hair that spiked up in the front with two distinctive pieces of his hair resembling horns. He was wearing a full-length cloak with a high collar, revealing a necklace of six red magatama and in the back of the collar, it had a stylized Rinnegan with nine magatama in three rows beneath it. But the most prominent characteristic is the Rinnegan in his eyes.

Naruto widen his eyes as he realized the man in front of him is the one who defeated the Ten Tails generations before. "T-The Sage o-of the Six Paths? Am I hallucinating, Kurama?"

"No, Naruto. It's him," replied Kurama still in shock. The Sage chuckled and smiled at the two.

"I'm very glad that the young generation knows your name, Kurama and I'm even more grateful that it is one of my descendants who knows it," said the wise Sage, shocking Naruto.

"Wait, I'm your descendant?" asked Naruto.

Kurama sighed. "Naruto, remember your conversation with your mother." The young Sage thought back and remembered that his clan, the Uzumaki Clan, are distant blood relatives to the Senju Clan, who in turn, are direct descendants of the Sage.

"Oh, yeah, I remember. Cool, I'm related to the Sage of the Six Paths!" exclaimed Naruto, grinning madly. The elder Sage smiled at his descendant's action and proud that he was the one who lead to the Tailed Beasts to the right path. The smile on the elder ninja turned serious, catching both Naruto and Kurama's attention.

"Sage?"

"Old man?"

"I must tell you the reason why I brought you two here," said the Sage. Naruto then remember about his friends at the battlefield and the Ten Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb's trajectory at them.

"You're the one who brought me here? Why didn't you bring my friends along with me?" asked Naruto angrily, shocking the duo. "Why didn't you let me die alongside them?"

"Naruto!" exclaimed Kurama, making the blonde flinched a little.

The Sage held his hand. "Kurama, it is all right. He's upset and I understand his anger."

Naruto was panting heavy for a few minutes until he calmed down and looked at the Sage. "Can you tell us why you brought us here?"

The God of Shinobi nodded and proceeded. "I summoned you and Kurama here to tell you the way to spilt the Ten Tails' chakra and rescue the other Tailed Beasts and end the demon's wrath." This revelation shocked Naruto, even Kurama, to their core. Immediately, the Jinchuriki was to ask the question.

"How? How can we stop the Ten Tails?" asked the young blonde Sage.

The Sage of the Six Paths explained. "When I defeated the Ten Tails, I used four mystical items that helped me to split the Ten Tails' chakra into the Tailed Beasts. After I finished splitting the chakra, I sent the items to four different worlds that I traveled to years before my death, in case the Ten Tails revived."

Naruto couldn't believe his ears when he heard this and he bet his partner is going through the same process. "Okay, point us to the right direction and Kurama and I can retrieve them."

The Sage shook his head, confusing the blonde. "You disagree? Why?"

"Despite of your current strength, you are not strong enough to defeat the guardians that I assigned to protect the Keys," replied the first shinobi.

Naruto frowned at this observation and hung his head down.

"However…" This caught Naruto's attention and he looked up at the elder Sage.

"I can train you to become stronger, to the point that you might equal or even exceed my strength." Naruto fell down in anime-style when he was offered the opportunity to train by the first shinobi. He quickly got up and said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get this starting," said Naruto happily, earning chuckles from the Six Paths and Kurama. The duo looked at each other, smiling at each other.

"It's good to see you again, Kurama."

"Back at you, Old Man."

After calming the young blonde ninja, the trio went through a door that the Sage of the Six Paths summoned. Naruto was excited for the training and had one thought in his mind: "_We'll meet again, Ten Tails and when that time comes, Kurama and I will beat you."_


	2. Journey Begins

03/28/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 2: Journey Begins

_Afterlife_

Six months passed by since the young Uzumaki accepted training from his distant blood ancestor, the Sage of the Six Paths, along with his Tailed Beast partner. The training was severely intense with one session being more excruciating than the one previous, but it was worth it.

Naruto felt his power increase after every training session and was proud of himself and his partner. The Jinchuriki and the Tailed Beast's bond became stronger as they trained together under the older Sage's tutelage, of course they bicker at each other time to time and get on each other's nerves, much to the Sage's amusement, but that's how partners are.

The trio resided in the Six Paths' estate; a large house that could fit 10 families, three kitchen, two swimming pools in the back and lastly a 50 acre training ground with a forge and a blacksmith to create weapons. The estate was a gift from their deities, Kami and Shinigami, to the Sage for his heroic deed of defeating the Ten Tails. When Naruto first arrived at the palace-like estate, his distant blood relatives, the Senju Clan including the Senju Clan Ancestor, greeted him. He was happy to finally meet the powerful clan who founded his home village, Konoha and set the standards that kept the village alive for generations.

The Sage told his young descendant that there will be a final test to see how far he has come and if he's strong/powerful enough to start the journey for the four Sealing Keys. Naruto commented that he'd pass the test with no sweat. That time has come.

_Sage's Estate (Training Ground)_

The training ground was meant to endure the toughest and most powerful attacks, but when Naruto Uzumaki battles, all bets are off. There are multiple craters that 20 feet in depth, with smoke emitting from them and lightning seem to fill the atmosphere. The entire Senju Clan was watching the boy battling their ancestor with satisfaction that the Uzumaki Clan is just as strong as them, if not stronger.

An explosion occurred with smoke filling the area, two figures sprinted into the smoke from opposite soon followed by clashes of metal and sparks were seen. Suddenly one of the figures leapt up into air, getting out of the smoke, revealed to be the young Sage. He was no longer wearing his orange jumpsuit and changed his attire to standard Leaf ninja attire, keeping only his black headband with the Leaf symbol engraved metal plate attached to it, and was covered with scratches and bruises.

The young Jinchuriki looked to see the smoke cleared by the wind, revealing his opponent, the Sage with scratches on his attire only. The elder ninja made hand-signs, ending with both of his hands clamped together. "Water Style: Liquid Bullet!" He exhaled a highly pressurized water bullet at the young Sage.

"Okay then," Naruto clamped his hands, channeling chakra in his mouth, "Wind Style: Air Bullet!" He exhaled a highly pressurized air bullet at the incoming water bullet. The contrasting element attacks collided, causing the water to disperse and rain upon the training-turned-battle ground and estate. The blonde ninja was still high in the air when the Six Paths rapidly created hand-signs, making the boy's eyes widen when he recognized the jutsu.

"Oh, boy, I'm still too high. Better come with something fast" whispered Naruto to himself.

The Sage unleashed his attack. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" A fire dragon appeared from the elder ninja's mouth, rapidly heading towards the young ninja with hands clamped together again.

"Wind Style: Stream!" Naruto exhaled a stream of wind, rapidly pushing him out of the flame's trajectory, missing its target. The young Uzumaki landed on the ground softly, stood up, and stared at his opponent who had a smirk on his face. During the six months, the blonde ninja underwent elemental training once again to get stronger and as a result, he completely mastered his primary elemental chakra to the point that he no longer needs to do hand-signs to perform Wind Style Ninjutsu, but as for the other elements, that's a different story.

"You've really progressed, compared to our first battle. You tired yourself out easily when you used your Sage Mode, and your Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, trying to keep up with me," the Sage chuckled before continuing, "but now you're using the same amount of strength and speed without transforming or tiring yourself out. You should be proud."

Naruto smiled at the comment. "Thanks, sensei. It means a lot coming from you, but…" the elder Sage cocked an eyebrow, "I know you're not using half of your speed and power… neither am I." Naruto smiled at the Sage who smiled back.

"Very well, then. I'll shall push you and make you give up," declared the shinobi getting into his fighting stance.

Naruto readied himself and slipped into his Frog Kata stance. "Hehehe, you forgot one thing; I'm your descendant, meaning I don't know the words 'giving up'." With that, the two sages raised their chakra levels to fifty percent, surprising the audience, although the young sage's power is still low, compared to their ancestor's. The ninja stare at each other's eyes, waiting for the moment to strike. Then it happened.

"_Now!"_ thought the two as they disappeared from sight. The two ninja made a beeline towards each other with their cocked right hands, ready to attack. As they got into strike distance, they launched their chakra-powered arms and collided. The contact created a huge shockwave that shook the ground, causing the audience to use chakra to stay steady and the two ninja disappeared again.

The battle went on for 10 minutes, eight minutes longer than the first battle at the beginning of the training. The elder sage and the young Uzumaki threw almost everything at each other; countering each other's attack with elemental ninjutsu, then genjutsu which didn't work on Naruto, thanks to Kurama and finally taijutsu. The two relatives countered each other's punches, kicks and so on, letting neither one to penetrate their defenses and finally they did.

Naruto and the Sage both punched each other's faces simultaneously, causing them to reel their heads back, and leapt backwards to get distance from each other. The young blonde had more bruises on his faces before, but is rapidly healing, courtesy of his partner's healing powers and his attire is starting to wear out, while his mentor has bruises and scratches on his face with his attire starting to wear out as well.

Neither of the ninja showed any sign of exhaustion, neither physical nor chakra-related, much to the amazement of the Senju. "I don't believe what I'm seeing; neither of them are tired from all that. I was expecting Naruto to, a least, show a little exhaustion by now," said a Senju Clan member.

"No, Naruto progressed far in his training and has become more powerful than he was when he first arrived here, " said a feminine voice. The clan turned around to find a beautiful woman in her early 30s with black hair, dark green eyes, and wearing a dark blue kimono with the stylized Rinnegan in the back.

"Ah, m-my lady Amari," bowed the same Senju Clan member, so did the rest of the clan. The woman sighed and walked closer to the one who bowed first. "I told you, all of you, that you don't need to do that to me or my husband. We are family, just Naruto is family to us."

Everyone rose up with the Senju clan male saying: "Yes, madam, I apologize." The woman smiled at this and looked behind to see the battle and a smirk appeared on her face.

"I believe the battle is about to be over," said the wife. The clan turned around to see the Sage armed with a katana in his right hand and looked at Naruto with a katana as well with his right arm as his sword arm. Both of the ninjas' attires had been slice marks in critical areas, indicating they both dodged killing moves.

"Naruto, I'm proud that you've lasted this long. Much longer than I had expected, now let's see who shall emerge victorious in this battle," said the Sage pointing his sword at his protégé. Naruto readied his sword and closed his eyes, remembering all of his Kenjutsu training sessions with the old man and opened his eyes, knowing that this will determine if he pass or not.

The two Sages stared at each other once more, then charged at each other and with both yells of exertion; they swung their swords when they got in close range. Their swords clanged and the two ninja find themselves at the opposite sides where they stood before.

Moments passed by until the elder Sage fell to his left knee, using his right knee to support him. He clutched his stomach that was bleeding profusely, and Naruto walked towards him, stopping when he was in front of him. His mentor looked up at him with a black expression.

Naruto broke the silence. "So did I pass?"

"No, you failed," said the Sage coldly. Naruto widen his eyes in pain when he felt something pierce his stomach and looked over his shoulder to the Sage clutching his left side with his left arm with his sword arm connecting to his back. "I'm disappointed, Naruto. I thought I taught you to never let your guard down, even if your enemy is down."

The Uzumaki then smirked, confusing his teacher. "Well, sensei. I've learned back home in how to catch my opponents off-guard, even experienced ninja like yourself." The Sage widen his eyes when he suddenly found himself surrounded five katana-armed Narutos, sticking the blades close to the pressure points with two close to his throat. The Naruto pierced by the Sage's blade puffed in smoke after this.

The Sage started chuckling, soon laughing, which confused the Narutos. "Um, old man?" The elder ninja turned around slowly, while avoiding the blades, to face the one who was behind him who subtly gulped.

"You pass," said the Sage with an eye smile.

The Original Naruto blinked. "Uh, say what?"

"You pass," repeated the elder. The Narutos has smiles reaching their ears and cheered, not believing what they just heard. The clones dispersed, leaving the original laughing and cheering, with the Sage looking at the audience. "He passed."

"HUZZAH!" the collective outcry of the Senju as they sprinted towards their blood relative. Naruto cried out as he was carried and put on the shoulders of two Senju, cheering for him. "NARUTO! NARUTO! NARUTO! NARUTO! NARUTO!"

"_Congratulations, Naruto,"_ said the Tailed Beast.

"_Thanks, Kurama,"_ replied the blonde jinchuriki, letting his friend go back to sleep.

The sage looked at his relatives who looked at him. "YEAH!" Naruto replied with a fist into the air, making his relatives cheer louder. Amari soon joined her husband, both of them smiling at each other as they enjoy each other's company while looking at Naruto.

"Do you think he will do it?" asked Amari, looking at her husband. He was still looking at his protégé for a few moments until he looked at his beautiful wife and gave her an answer. "Yes, I believe he can do it…Ah, there is one final objective to be done."

Amari caught on what objective the Sage was talking about. "Honey, you don't know if it will work. You tried it and it didn't work, so what makes you think that Naruto can do it?" Her husband looked at her for a moment and said: "Because he is the one."

Amari was surprised by his answer, but smiled at the amount of trust and faith that her husband has for the boy. She walked with him towards the huddled group. Everyone stopped cheering when they noticed their ancestors approaching with Naruto stepping out in front of the group.

The Sage cleared his throat and said: "Naruto Uzumaki, you have grown exceptionally powerful since you've arrived in our humble home. You've grown closer to all of us since we are family. You've shown the strength of both Uzumaki and Senju, showing that the strong bond between our clans is stronger than ever. Your parents would be extremely proud of you."

Everyone cheered loudly, startling the young Uzumaki slightly. The Sage quickly raised his hand, cutting the cheering. "However this means that you are ready to retrieve the four Sealing Keys from the worlds that I sent them to and defeat the Ten Tails and save our world."

Naruto's anger rose when the Sage mentioned the demon's name and clenched his fists, but calmed down as quickly as his anger rose. He looked at the Sage and said, "Don't worry, sensei. I'll retrieve the Keys, defeat the Ten Tails, save the Tailed Beasts and our world. I'm more than ready."

The Sage nodded in agreement and continued. "However…" this caught everyone's attention, "there is one final objective that you must accomplish before you head on your journey."

Naruto, along with the Senju Clan was greatly confused by this notion. "Sensei, what do you mean that I have one final objective to complete? I completed your training and passed your test," asked a puzzled Naruto.

"You must rest, Naruto. You will start the objective tomorrow morning, you will need your full rest." The young Sage knew that he couldn't get an answer until the next morning and complied.

"Yes, sensei," Naruto bowed to his mentor. The Sage bowed as well and started walking back to the house. Soon the Senju clan followed their ancestors as did Naruto, noticing that it was already nighttime. "Wow, I can't believe it's night already," Naruto yawned and stretched his arms, "I should do what sensei said and get some shut-eye." With that, the shinobi continued to walk back to the house, preparing him-self for whatever he has to do to complete the objective.

Unbeknownst to the residents, a figure with a pineapple-shape hair was at the entrance, grinning.

_The Next Morning, Sage's Estate_

"You want me to do what now?" asked Naruto deadpanned. The young Jinchuriki was in a new set of standard Leaf shinobi attire with his headband and sandals. When he woke up, his mentor left him a note to meet him at the forge.

"You heard me; I want you to create a sword," replied the Sage.

Naruto was puzzled by this notion. "Um, Sensei, why am I making a sword? Better yet, I don't know how to make a sword, I'm not a blacksmith."

"You're right on that," said a voice behind the blonde. He turned around and his eyes widen when he saw a familiar face. The man looked exactly like his laid-back friend.

Naruto was at a loss of words. "S-Shikaku? Is that you?" He received a nod from the elder Nara. "H-how are you here? Never that, how are you?"

"I'm doing fine, despite being dead. The line at the check-in station for newly departed souls was a huge a drag. Just when I left the station, I heard about a living blonde whiskered kid being trained by the Sage of the Six Paths and I immediately thought of you."

Naruto smiled and rubbed the back his head sheepishly. "Yeah, thanks. So what are you doing here?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at his mentor. "Naruto, Shikaku here is blacksmith and a darn good one, a prodigy. He made some of the best weapons in Konoha." The young Sage's eyes bulged out by this revelation and looked at the Shikaku.

"You were a blacksmith!?"

"Yeah, when I was in my youth," replied the Nara plainly.

Naruto was dumbfounded by his answer. "Does Shikamaru know about this?" Shikaku shook his head.

"No, but I will see him again pretty soon as well as the others." Naruto's ears perked up when he heard 'others.'

"Others? Soon? You mean-?" Shikaku nodded in anticipation of what the blonde shinobi was about to say.

Naruto smiled as hell. "Yes, I'm going to see my friends again. Tell me; how long until they get checked in?" Shikaku put his thumb against his chin, thinking about the time.

"Five days." Naruto cheered.

"Alright, that means I can see them before I leave," said Naruto happily. He soon noticed the frown on the elder Nara's face and looked at his mentor's face, having the same look. "What?"

"Naruto," the young shinobi turned to face his mentor, "the thing is that you must start your journey tomorrow and I want you to make your sword by tonight or tomorrow morning." Naruto was surprised by this revelation, but was more confused than before.

"Sensei, doesn't forging a sword take time like two days?"

"Actually two weeks," said the Sage simply, making his apprentice sweat-dropped at the tone. "You have an advantage going for you."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow in response. "What's that?"

The Sage responded. "Shikaku here will help you to forge your sword, but the process will be long."

"How long will it take with Shikaku helping me?" Naruto eagerly, wanting to get started.

"If you start now, you probably will finish by tonight or tomorrow morning." Naruto smiled after his mentor finished explaining.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started," replied Naruto, getting inside the forge, ready.

Shikaku chuckled and looked at the Father of All Ninja. "I will let you when it is finished." The Sage nodded in agreement and walked away, leaving the forge to rest in his house.

The elder Nara walked inside the forge, impressed by the tools and mechanics and he saw the young Uzumaki touched a tool that fell down and knocked over a few objects comically, making Shikaku sigh in response.

Naruto noticed Shikaku and sheepishly smiled while rubbing the back of his head. "Hehehe, my bad, so what do we do first?"

"First you must remove your torso," Naruto twitched his right eye when he heard this.

"Say what?" Shikaku sighed and pinch the bridge of his nose and looked at the Sage.

"Look, do you want to burn your attire while forging your sword?" Naruto stroked his chin as he thought about it.

"You're right." The young Sage removed his flak jacket, the dark blue long-sleeved shirt, leaving only his headband and pants on. "Okay, what's next?" He watch the elder ninja walk to a chest near the pit, prompting him to do the same. When Naruto was beside his friend's father, the latter opened the chest revealing seven glowing white rocks that filled the room, soon Shikaku closed the chest.

"Now, I must tell you about the material that we're using to forge your sword," catching the Uzumaki's attention, "the material is derived from the inside of a meteorite that fell out of the stars and crashed on our world."

Naruto widen his eyes in surprise as he heard of this. "Really? So… what's so important about the meteorite?" Shikaku glared at him, making the blonde to regret asking the question.

"The material from inside the meteorite was used to create the Treasured Tools of the Sage of the Six Paths, which gave them their immeasurable power and abilities." As Shikaku explained, Naruto briefly remembered the two of the tools that he saw Obito summoned before reviving the Ten Tails.

"Okay, that sounds interesting, but I have a feeling that there's something else, huh?" asked the blonde, getting a nod from Shikaku.

"Yes, the material had mysterious properties whenever it was used to form weapons. It made the weapons lighter, stronger and more endurable than any other metal on our planet. We'll also combine the meteorite with the chakra metal that's used to create chakra blades, that way you would have a very strong weapon."

Naruto smiled. "Then, let's stop talking and start forging. Come on, help me get this thing starting." He looked at Shikaku still standing in the same place, making Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "Old Man Nara?"

The elder Nara looked at the young Uzumaki. "I can't help you physically forge the sword. You must do it on your own." This surprised Naruto out of his mind.

"But I—"

"I will help you go through the process and the seven meteorite fragments are only enough for one more weapon. So you must be careful," declared Shikaku sounding so serious, causing the young Sage to flinch in response.

Naruto thought to himself. "_Man, I liked him better when he was laid back."_ He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Shikaku call out to him.

"Naruto!"

The latter stammered. "Y-Yes, s-sir?"

"Let's begin. We only have tonight and tomorrow morning to complete your sword." Naruto stared at him with determination.

"Let's do this," As he opens the chest and picked up one of the glowing meteorite.

The entire day and night was filled with sounds of metal clanging, heat steaming and yells of pain from the blonde ninja as he accidently burns himself.

_The Next Day (Early Morning) _

"Enough, Naruto. It is finished," said Shikaku as he commanded his temporary blacksmith protégé. The young Toad Sage had placed the newly forged sword into a huge tub of ice and water as the cold temperature will cool it down.

Naruto was covered with sweat and some dark powder-like bruises are present on his face, his chest and arms. His physique had changed greatly after the Six Paths' training; his arms are defined as well as his chest, six packs and his body is more lean than before.

"But, what about the cross guard? We haven't put that in yet?"

Shikaku raised his hand to silence the Jinchuriki. "Go to your room and rest. You will need all of your strength before you head out for your journey." Naruto was about to protest, but stopped himself as he knew that the elder Nara won't budge, so he nodded and left the forge.

The former blacksmith walked towards to where the sword is being cooled and stared at it. "_Just maybe."_

_Evening_

Naruto spent the entire day, resting from the all-nighter he just went through. He was thinking about his newly forged sword but that was bugging him the most was the importance of the material that he used to forge the weapon. He was brought out of his thoughts and sleep when he heard a knock on the door.

"Naruto?" asked a voice.

"Yeah?"

"The Sage wants you in the training ground. He's got something important to tell you." Naruto groaned in response and opened his eyes.

Naruto yawned as he sat up. "I'll be there in 10 minutes." He heard footsteps walking away from his door and so proceeded to take a shower.

10 minutes later, the young Jinchuriki put on his Leaf Shinobi attire with his headband, the shuriken holster attached on his right thigh and a hip pouch worn over half of his lower back. He walked down the stairs and out of the house and he saw the entire Senju Clan, including Shikaku, sitting on their knees with the Sage of the Six Paths and his wife standing before them.

His mentor noticed him and gestured him to come over to them. The protégé complied and walked around his relatives and soon is standing before his ancestor. Naruto noticed a case on a table behind the Sage and realized that it was his sword inside.

"Is that-?"

The Sage nodded. "Yes, your sword is now complete. Here is your weapon," the elder ninja grabbed the box and opened it, hearing a gasp from his protégé.

He see the daito (Japanese long sword) or katana, with no cross guard. Alongside it was a black sheathe, but that's not all; the entire weapon is white; from the razor-sharp blade to the hilt.

Naruto was in still in shock that he didn't hear his mentor call his name. After the fifth time, the Uzumaki snapped out of it. "What?"

"I said you may wield your sword," the Sage watched his protégé pick up his weapon and examined it. "_Come on. I know you can do it."_

Naruto stared at his newly forged weapon and felt a strange connection to it as if it's trying to tell him something.

"Naruto," catching the young swordsman's attention, "what are you going to name it?"

"Name it?" Naruto puzzled by this question.

The Sage nodded. "It is customary that we name our weapons once they're forged." Naruto looked at his sword again, this time closed his eyes. Time seemed to pass by as the young shinobi kept thinking about what name he should give until he opened his eye when he heard some form of chanting from the sword, that only he can hear.

Finally he found the name appropriate for his blade and looked at his mentor, who realized that he made his mind. "What is your blade's name?"

Naruto answered. "Tenkaichi." Suddenly the entire sword glowed brightly, making everyone present with Naruto covering his eyes as well while holding his sword. As quickly as the light came, it was gone with everyone looking at Naruto and gasped by what they saw.

The young Uzumaki opened his eyes and he was surprised by what he's seeing; his sword's color changed into black from the tip of the blade to the hilt and has a cross guard with four prongs that bent out to the shape of the manji. Then he noticed a short length of chain linked to a small red circle dangling from the base of the hilt. He grabbed the chain to inspect the circle and realized that the circle is actually the swirl symbol of the Uzumaki Clan, his clan.

"Sensei, what does this mean? How did the sword change color, not to mention about the chain with my clan's symbol and the cross guard wasn't there before." Asked Naruto, demanding answers.

The Sage chuckled, confusing the blonde and his relatives. "The reason that I wanted you to forge your sword is because it is a part of you."

"Eh?"

"While you were forging the sword the entire time, the meteorite absorbed portions of your chakra and your soul. Therefore, your weapon is a part of you and you know your sword's true name. That is why Tenkaichi changed its color and the chain as well your clan's symbol and the cross guard appeared because this is its true form," replied the Sage. Naruto is shocked by this revelation and looked at his newly named sword, still processing that it's a part of him.

Naruto realized something else. "You knew about this, didn't you?" he received a nod from his mentor.

"Yes, because my blade was made by the same material but I didn't forge it," said the Sage placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. Naruto blinked his eyes as he didn't see it when he arrived.

"_Am I really that dense to not notice his sword?"_

His mentor continued. "One of the worlds that you're going to will have people, very powerful people, with abilities that rivals our people's abilites."

"Really? What can you tell me about them?" asked the excitedly Uzumaki.

The Sage shook his head. "That's for you to find out." Naruto pouted in response.

The first shinobi chuckled before a serious face appeared, causing everyone but his wife, to gulped loudly. "Now you must start your journey now. You are ready."

Naruto nodded as he sheathed Tenkaichi and slung it over his right shoulder. He turned right, walked for a few yards, then stopped. The Sage was a few feet behind him, both saying nothing to each other.

Finally the first Jinchuriki spoke. "Remember that there are four worlds that the Keys are located. To get to each of them, you first must pass through each Bridge World that connects the Four Major Worlds."

Naruto nodded. "Yes, I know," the young Jinchuriki realized something else, "How do I know if I'm in the world where one of the Keys are located and how do I find them?" He saw the former Jinchuriki point at his stomach.

"Kurama?"

"Yes. Kurama was born when I used the Keys to help me split the Ten Tails chakra. He will be your compass and tell you if you're in one of the Four Major Worlds or one of the Bridge World." The Sage finished, receiving a nod from his young protégé. He smiled at his descendant, remembering the all time they spent together during the past six months. "Good luck, Naruto. I know you will succeed." He opened his arms with the young Sage complied, giving him a hug.

They soon broke the hug with Amari walking next to her husband. "Please stay alive and come back to us," said the beautiful woman, hugging her descendant.

Naruto broke the hug and looked over Amari's shoulder, seeing the Senju Clan walking over to their location. The Hero of the Hidden Leaf waved them good-bye, receiving waves of good-byes from them.

"Hold on for one moment," called out someone. Everyone looked to find a woman with bright red hair, a small diamond on her forehead, and she was wearing a bright green and blue kimono with a stylized Uzumaki Clan symbol on the back. Naruto smiled as he recognized the woman as his clansmen.

"Mito." The wife of the First Hokage smiled when she heard her name called. She walked over to her fellow jinchuriki and gave him a hug, which the latter hugged her tightly. The two Uzumakis bonded during the six months and Mito taught Naruto the history of their clan as well every unique fuinjutsu in their clan's arsenal. After a few moments, the Sage walked a few feet away from everyone, and closed his eyes.

"_Kurama…"_ called out Naruto. The fox slightly opened his eyes, and growled a little for being woken up.

"_What is it, Naruto?"_

"_It's time."_ The Tailed Beast's eyes shot up, and raised his head slightly. "_It's that time already? Very well, let's do this, Naruto."_

"_Yep, let's start the process."_ Naruto opened his eyes and started channeling chakra into his arms. Soon his regular blue chakra appeared in his right palm followed by Kurama's red/yellowish chakra in his left palm. He slowly put his palms together, creating a Rasengan-like sphere with yellow and blue chakra swirling.

"_Now!"_ thought Naruto as he thrusts his arms forward, releasing the energy. The energy started to create a white portal that appeared in front of the young Uzumaki. The latter then stopped channeling energy as he felt that the portal was stable enough and started walking towards it.

"Naruto!" called out the Sage. The jinchuriki turned around to look at him. "Remember you must wait two months to open another portal to the next world."

Naruto gave a thumbs-up. "Got it… Thank you guys for everything and I promise you, I will not fail!"

The Senju Clan cheered and raised his fists high into the air with Naruto's fist in the air as well. The Toad Sage turned to face the portal and jumped into the portal before it closed.

The Sage of the Six Paths smiled at the spot where his protégé stood as he knows that his descendant will not give up in his quest.

Unknown Realm

Among a huge city covered by darkness, there lies a house with a satellite disk pointing to the stars in the sky, fences surrounding the roof and an odd smell of death filled the air. Suddenly, the atmosphere seemed to fill with electricity, then sparks started to appear and reacting with the area. Then a white portal appeared out of nowhere, causing the spot below to spider-crack followed by creating a small crater.

A familiar figure appeared, stepping out of the white doorway. As the portal closes, the figure sighed and looked up into the sky, staring at the moon.

"_Beautiful moon tonight, huh?"_ Naruto thought to himself, then remembered the Keys, "_I better check with Kurama to see if this is one of the Bridge World. Kurama!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, I know. Give me a moment…Oh, boy."_ Naruto became worried when he heard that.

"_Kurama, what do you mean by 'oh, boy'?"_

"_This is one of the Bridge Worlds. I sensed around everywhere in this world, but no luck. That means one of the Keys is not here."_ Naruto hung his head as he and his partner needs to wait two months in order to travel to the next world.

"_What am I supposed to do for two months?"_ He got his answer when he heard screaming coming from the side of the house, so he sprinted to the edge and was appalled by what he's seeing. Five disfigured and bloodied people, slouching with wide jaw distance, blank and rolled back eyes and have a pale skin tone. They surrounded a woman and quickly attacked her, feasting on her flesh.

"_Well, you got your answer. You can kill those things,"_ replied Kurama simply.

Naruto ignored his partner's answer while he was appalled at the sight of humans eating another human. "What the hell is going on here?" He noticed the cannibals turn around and started walking towards them, causing the Leaf shinobi to smirk.

"Oh, well," Naruto drawing Tenkaichi, "I might as well as try out my new weapon." He jumped down to the ground, landing in front of the disfigured humans and pointed his sword at them. One of them lunged at him with incredible speed, but Naruto quickly sidestepped to the left and swung his sword at his attacker's head, spilling blood across the area.

As the body dropped dead, Naruto looked at the rest of them and smirked at them. A second later, he was behind them with his sword dripping blood and the bodies' heads severed on the ground with the collapsed feasters. The Sage swung his sword to get the blood off and sheathed it, then he walked to one of the bodies, examining it.

"_What are you doing, Naruto?"_

"_I'm checking to see if they can infect others by contact or something else,"_ replied Naruto as he flipped one of the headless bodies face-up and noticed a bite mark on the shoulder.

"So _if they bite you, you'll turn into one of them." _Kurama observed the bite mark and Naruto cocking his eyebrow.

"_What do you mean 'them'?" I took them all out."_

Kurama responded. "_Take a look to your right."_ The Jinchuriki complied and his eyes widen in surprise when he saw a horde of the cannibals numbering around 50 or more, slouching towards him.

"WHOA! There's so many of them!" Naruto a little panicked. He heard his partner chuckle.

"_This should be a cinch for you. You can take them out easily,"_ Kurama replied, prompting his Jinchuriki to make a hand-sign.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough," said Naruto simply. A strong gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and headed towards the slow enemy. The wind technique collided with the cannibals, sending them back with great force until they're no longer seen.

The young Uzumaki sighed. "I better check for survivors, if there are any." He leapt high onto one of the houses next to him, then continued leapt across multiple houses while exploring the chaos-ridden city, looking for survivors.

As the Leaf Shinobi continued jumping from building to building, he started to give up hope of finding survivors until he heard a scream. He turned his head to the left and changed direction, heading to the origin of the scream and after a few minutes, he stopped on one of the buildings that were across the street from a building with lights on.

Naruto see a boy with an average appearance, spiky black hair, a slender but powerful build and was wearing some sort of uniform and was armed with a metal bat. He was a few feet away from an odd vehicle on two wheels standing next to a machine. The Sage noticed two more people standing on the opposite side from him and the sight was enough for Naruto's anger to rise slightly.

A man with dark skin, wearing strange attire was holding a teenage girl around his age hostage. The girl had reddish-brown eyes, long, light-brownish hair with bangs and two strands on sticking out of the rest of her hair and a slender figure with ample breasts. She was also wearing some sort of uniform as well. The dark-skinned man was groping the girl's left breast and declared making her his sex slave as their world was thrown in chaos.

The shinobi drew a kunai and reappeared behind the perpetrator, shocking the teenage boy with the former noticing his expression. "What the hell is with that look on your face? I told you to-"

"Let the girl go," Naruto in cold tone with his kunai near the soon-to-be dead man's throat. The man was in disbelief as someone got behind him and is preventing him from getting what he wants.

"You think I'm gonna hand over this bi-"he stopped when the blonde ninja pushed the kunai closer to his throat, almost to the point of piercing the skin.

The young Uzumaki glared at him coldly. "I'll say this one last time. Let…her…go…now!" The boy and the girl both felt the killing intent emitting from the stranger, except the perpetrator didn't what he was ordered to do.

"Ha, fat chance, blondie. I'm gonna kill you first, then the damn boy over there and after I have my fun with the slut here, I'll—"the crazy man didn't finish his sentence as his jugular and throat bleed profusely from the cut by a swift slice by the kunai. The man let go of the girl who ran to her friend, holding him tightly for comfort while the former grasped his throat, gasping for air then collapsed on the ground.

The two teenagers looked at the stranger fling his kunai to get the blood, then put the small blade in some sort of holster on the thigh. They see him wearing a very strange attire as well a black headband with a metal plate that had a weird symbol and a black katana slung over his right shoulder.

Naruto noticed them staring at him and smiled at the teenagers. "Are you all right, miss?" The girl reluctantly nodded. The ninja took a step forward, and suddenly the boy took out a weird weapon from his pants and pointed it at him.

"Really? I just saved your friend from getting raped by that crazy guy and this is the thanks I get?" The boy still pointed the weapon at him, soon shaking a little.

"We don't know if you'll kill us or betray us. After what just happened, I can trust nobody!" Naruto sighed as he understand what the teenagers went through and it is normal for them to react this way.

The Sage replied. "Look, if I wanted you to kill you, you'd be dead right now and you'd never find out how." The teenagers' eyes widen in fear when the stranger revealed he could kill them in an instant without them realizing what happened. The former then tried to calm the situation as he didn't want to try to take the weapon from the boy since he doesn't know what it can do to him or them.

"What are your names?" Both teenagers were surprised when he asked for their names and they did so reluctantly. "Takashi Komuro," replied the black haired boy. Naruto nodded and looked at the girl to give her name. "R-Rei M-Miyamoto."

The shinobi then gave his name. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki." He walked towards to both teens' ignoring the weapon in front of him since he'll dodge it or take it from Takashi before he knew what hit him. He stopped a few feet from them and extended his hand, smiling at them.

Takashi and Rei were surprised by Naruto's gesture and emotion as if nothing's happened and they were greeting for the first time. The former reluctantly lowered the weapon and extended his right hand, connecting with Naruto's and shook it for a few seconds before letting go.

"Sorry about just now, I-" Naruto raised his hand, stopping Takashi.

The Sage lowered his hand. "I understand completely as I would've done the exact same thing if it happened to me and someone that I know." The boy sighed in relief.

"Are you two the only survivors?" Both shook their heads.

Rei responded. "No, we got separated from our group and planned to rendezvous at the police station." Naruto nodded and looked around to see darkness surrounding them with the lights above them keeping it at bay. He looked back at the teens and asked what they didn't expect.

"Can I tag along with you guys? I can help you get back together with your group and find a safe place for all of you to live in." Takashi thought about it for a few moments as he observed Naruto. The blonde's appearance gives the impession that he can handle himself in a fight and could be a key member at fighting 'them'.

Takashi nodded in agreement as they heard groaning nearby. The trio looked to see 'them' everywhere, surrounding the building. "Come on, let's go," Rei as Takashi and her got on the motorcycle. The duo realized that it doesn't have room for Naruto and looked at him. "Sorry, Naruto, it's only meant for two."

The Leaf smirked, confusing his new friends. "Don't worry, I'll keep up." The high schoolers cocked their eyebrows and was about to ask how, but they noticed the undead getting closer and decided to ask later. Takashi turned on the engine and turned the knob, driving away from the station and Naruto. Rei looked back to see her rescuer disappear as they drive farther away.

"Takashi, what do you think he meant that he'll keep up with us?" Her childhood friend shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but I hope he's all right."

"Ah, thanks guys," said Naruto. The two teens' eyes bulged out anime-style as they looked to their left to see Naruto running along-side them. The ninja chuckled at their reactions. "Don't worry. I'll explain everything about me once I get you back to your group, okay?" He received nods from them with Takashi watching the street as he drives.

Naruto continued running along-side his friends as he had something on his mind. "_I'll get them and their group in a safe and secure place. That's a promise."_


	3. The Group Is Reunited

04/06/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 3: The Group Is Reunited

_The Next Day_

Naruto's eyes moved a little in response from the sun's rays, slowly opened them after. "_Morning, already?"_ He slowly got up from a sofa that he was sleeping on, popped his joints then looked out of the window. The ninja and his new friends had settled in the apartment since Rei was exhausted and traumatized from her experience by the crazed man and Naruto knew that one's need rest to calm her state of mind. So the ninja persuaded the teens to rest for the night.

He looked down to see Takashi sleeping on the floor after letting Rei take the bedroom, so the former carefully moved around the black-haired boy and proceeded to the kitchen.

He opened the refrigerator, one of the few things he recognized in this world, took out a bottle of water and gulped it down to the last drop. After that, the swordsman walked over to the window where he placed Tenkaichi next to his hip pouch, shuriken holster, Takashi's metal bat and Rei's makeshift spear below it. Naruto equipped his hip pouch, his holster and stared at his clan's symbol dangling from the base of the hilt before he slung the sword over his right shoulder.

Then he heard movement and turned around to see Takashi rubbing his eyes then got up to stretch his joints from resting on the floor. "Morning, Takashi. How do you feel?"

"I feel better since we slept. I think a long rest was necessary after yesterday." He looked out the window with Naruto, both staring at the chaos-ridden world. Soon a frown appeared on Takashi's face. "It wasn't a dream, wasn't it?"

The shinobi looked at him and shook his head. "Unfortunately, no." This wasn't what the blonde was looking forward when he started his journey to receive the Keys, but he's here now, helping his two new friends to reunited with their group. "You should wake up Rei. We need to get moving if we're going to find your friends."

Takashi nodded in agreement. He picked up his bat and walked inside the room where Rei was sleeping to wake her up. A few minutes later, the boy came out with the female behind him with the latter waving at the ninja who waved back in response.

Naruto put his hand down. "How are you feeling, Rei?"

"I feel much better since we rested for the night…" The male duo looked at her when she didn't finish her sentence. "…Thank you, Naruto, for saving us. Especially me." Naruto had a frown on his face when he realized that the girl was still traumatized despite being a strong woman. An experience like she went through plus the chaos in their world must've pushed her mental state to its limit.

"You're welcome." Naruto sighed, then look out of the window, "We should get moving. As soon as we leave, the sooner we can locate your group." The two high schoolers nodded. Later, they went out of the house with Naruto armed with a kunai, Takashi with his bat and Rei with her spear. They located the motorcycle that was outside near the gate along with five of 'Them' in the area.

Naruto stopped and looked over his shoulder to glance at his friends. "Stay here. I 'll handle them." They were about to protest but Naruto gave them a look that prevented them. The latter faced forward and casually walked out in plain sight, waiting for one of the cannibals to attack him. But to his confusion, they didn't attack especially since one passed by him as if he wasn't there. He looked at his friends for answers with Takashi realizing the former doesn't know about the weaknesses.

"Naruto…Almost all of their senses are dead. They are sensitive to sound, no matter how small it is." The ninja was surprised, then he nodded as he proceeded to take out the threat. He quickly drew five shurikens and swiftly threw them at the five undead and was met with thuds in response.

"Clear!" said Naruto, calling to his friends. The latter two came from their spot and got on their motorcycle with the ninja standing beside them. "You guys ready?" He receives nods and looked forward.

"Let's go then." Takashi brought the motorcycle to life and hit the gas, heading to their meeting place at the police station with Naruto running alongside with them.

_Elsewhere Near a Bridge_

The road connecting to a bridge was overflowed with traffic of vehicles, people walking past them with backpacks filled with supplies. One of the vehicles is a bus that harbors two groups of survivors originating from Fujimi High School.

The driver was slouching against the wheel, bored as hell. She has long blonde hair extending to her waist, hazel eyes, ridiculous curves and her most prominent characters are her huge J-cup 'assets' and sporting a white dress shirt with a ripped brown skirt. She was the school's nurse and current medical examiner/doctor; Shizuka Marikawa.

Two rows behind her are two members of her group, or Takashi's group, sitting next to each other. An overweight teenage boy with brown eyes, black shoulder-length hair, sporting a uniform similar to Takashi's uniform and was doing what he thought best: sleeping against the window. He was Hirano Kohta. Next to him is the genius of the group, Saya Takagi. She has long pink hair tied into two ponytails on either side of her head, orange hairs, furrowed eyebrows, with a slender physique and F-cups or bikini model breasts. Lastly she sported glasses and a uniform similar to Rei's attire and their top fighter, Saeko Busujimi.

She was sitting behind the duo. The former has long, straight and shiny purple hair, blue eyes, and D-cups as well sporting the same uniform as Rei and Saya. Her eyes were closed as she was resting with her _bokken_ wooden sword in her crossed arms.

Behind them at the end of the bus lies the other group led by Shido, a former teacher at their school. Currently he's preaching about the end of the world, and how he'll save them all.

Saya was thinking about something until she got irritated with the boy's snoring and decided that naptime is over. "Hirano, stop." The girl nudged him.

Kohta snorted in response before opening his eyes and looked at her. "Takagi, good morning. Is it daytime already?"

"Yeah, its morning," Takagi scoffed when she noticed a liquid coming from the boy's mouth, "And you're drooling."

"Sorry," as the latter then wiped the drool with his hand and looked out of the window to see the nightmare traffic jam. "Look at that. I think it's better to evacuate to the suburbs."

"Cars are the only way to get out of here." Saya pointing out the window and to the sky with an airplane flew by.

Hirano realized what she was talking about. "Oh yeah, the airport and the ocean, right." Then the genius talked about the American forces in Okinawa and the Special Defense Forces and their protocol to keep a small community to survive.

"I should've talk to Komuro if he was still here. He would have an answer or know what to do from this point." Pointed out Takagi since she knew that her childhood friend had answers in the current crisis they're in.

Hirano looked hurt by that statement and looked out the window. "Yeah, you like Komuro, I know."

Takagi blushed and defended herself. "Don't be ridiculous!" She then felt two presences behind and quickly turned to her left to see both Saeko and Shizuka standing there, still blushing from Hirano's comment. "What?"

Saeko looked out of the window. "I'm getting worried about Komuro and the others. I hope they can hold on until we meet up."

_Elsewhere_

An explosion occurred near in front of a building next to a bridge overhead with several cars in the cars with space between them, people screaming from the terror that is upon them. A zombie was shot by a shotgun wielded by a shirtless, bald man with a bandage on his left forearm and a tattoo.

The man laughed manically. "That's right, run. Run like hell!" He continued laughing and shooting again.

Under the bridge was the trio whose objective is to reunite with their group. Rei was the first to speak when they saw what just happened. "This is absolutely nuts. It's-It's like a war."

"And we're in the front row center for it," replied Takashi as he looked at the ninja. He couldn't figure out how the blonde manage to keep up with a motorcycle and show no signs of exhaustion or fatigue, but he remembered his new friend's statement of telling them about him when they're back with the group and in a safe location and with that, he faced forward.

Naruto lowered his head a little as he silently remarked the girl's statement. "_This isn't a war. This is absolutely nothing compared to what I went through."_ He raised his head to face the destruction and analyzed what is the best way for them travel through, but he couldn't finish when he heard Takashi about charging through the place and revved up the motorcycle.

The shinobi quickly got in front of motorcycle, surprising the duo. "Naruto, what are you doing?" He looked over his right shoulder and replied.

"I'll go first. Wait for five seconds and then go, okay?" Takashi was about to protest but realized that he wouldn't convince the blonde, so he reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Naruto faced forward and sprinted towards the carnage. As he got near the destruction and the crazed people as the dead, the ninja quickly drew shurikens in both hands from the shuriken holster and hip pouch respectively.

The ninja threw the spinning projectiles at them before they even noticed him and fell to the ground with the sprinter still running. Soon he stopped when he got to the other side, and heard the motorcycle coming closer and saw his new friends appear, stopping behind him. The two males nodded and the high schoolers continued onward with Naruto following.

Later after that, Takashi saw the bridge and his eyes widen when he saw something that wasn't right and took a left turn, confusing Rei and Naruto until the latter caught a brief glimpse at the bridge as he turned left and realized Takashi made the right call.

"Why'd you turn, Takashi? The bridge was straight ahead." The male stopped the motorcycle with Naruto stopping next to them on their left side.

Her childhood friend looked over his right shoulder. "I know, but did you see it?" His reply prompted Rei to take a closer look at the bridge and gasped to what she's seeing.

"At this rate," Rei and Takashi look at Naruto with his arms crossed, "we don't know when we'll be able to cross. Takashi made the right call."

The latter received a nod of praise from the blonde and said. "We'll head to Onbetsu Bridge and meet up with the teachers and the others."

"Lead the way," said Naruto. Takashi revved the motorcycle and the trio of fighters were off to their destination. Back at the bridge, police officers with water tanks were blasting those who were crossing the bridge without permission and warned the rest to heed their future actions.

_Back at the Bus, Evening_

The bus was still in the traffic jam with the sun getting closer to dusk and everyone knows it's more dangerous to be out at night than it is at daytime. Inside the bus, Shido was still preaching to his group, talking about pride and how Takashi and Rei was unfit to be them, their 'family'.

At the front of the bus, Saeko, Saya and Shizuka were watching him, unconvinced about the guy's 'good' intentions. The pink hair then spoke to her friends.

"This guy is crazy for real. He's preaching like a maniac." Saya with her arms crossed.

"You got that right. He sounds like a recruiter for a religious cult," replied Saeko still staring at him.

Saya looked at Saeko. "He doesn't sound like one; he is. Look at the people actually listening to him." The duo looked at the group in the back to see expressions of 'we're saved'. "We need to get out of here."

The swordswoman looked over her left shoulder at the window. "Given the condition on the road, we're going have to leave the bus to evacuate," Saeko putting her right thumb and index finger to think, "We have to somehow cross Onbesto Bridge and head to the eastern police station. We're still supposed to meet up with Komuro."

Saya fixed her glasses. "You're sure worried about Komuro, aren't you? Aren't you worried about your _own_ family?" The pink girl responded with a subtle tinge of jealously.

Saeko looked at her. "Of course I am, but my father is my only family and he's at the dojo overseas. So the only people that I need to be worried about are myself and Komuro." Saeko being oblivious to Saya's evil glare.

" So, where are everyone's houses?" asked Shizuka, changing the subject.

Saya replied. "On the other side of the bridge, and they're in the same area as Komuro's house." Hirano quickly caught their attention.

"My parents aren't in the neighborhood," the marksman with a tinge of blush on his cheeks, "but I'm willing to go anywhere as long I'm with Takagi."

"_Eeewww." _Takagi comically stepped away from the boy with a subtle creep-out look on her face, not noticing Saeko's smile. The latter then asked, "Hirano, where's your family? Are you close?"

Hirano closed his eyes and replied. "My father is a jewelry merchant, so he's gone to Amsterdam to buy supplies. My mother is a fashion designer, she's been staying in Paris and…" Saya interrupted him.

"What kind of ancient story is that? You expect us to believe all that crap?" asked Saya irritated. Shizuka laughed in amusement at Saya's outburst, then looked at Hirano grinning at her.

The gun lover asked her. "What about you, Shizuka? Anyone in the city?" He saw her shaking her head in response.

"I don't have any family and my other relatives live far away, so I'm coming along with you," replied Shizuka. "I know I shouldn't be saying this…but I think Mr. Shido is kind of a douchebag."

The trio smiled and smirked at her comment.

"So what do we do? I'm not very familiar with this area," said Saeko to Saya who crossed her arms to think.

"We really should check Onbetsu Bridge first," replied Saya. Their subtle conversation caught Shido's attention, so he turned around to face them.

"What's wrong, everybody? We're supposed to work together."

The pink-hair genius turned to him with a victorious smirk. "Thanks for the offer, but we have our own plans," Saya ignoring the glare from one of Shido's followers, "this isn't a school field trip, so we don't have obligation to stay with you. Besides I've never had any of your classes."

Shido interlocked his fingers together with a calm glare while staring at the opposite group. "If that's you've decided, then please go right ahead. I won't stop you, after all Japan is a free country. However…" Shido slightly opened his mouth and licked his lips while staring at the doctor with a lustful look, "I'm afraid you will have to remain, Miss Marikawa."

The nurse gasped in response while Shido continued. "Losing the doctor is a major blow to our current situation. Would you please stay?" The cult leader started walking towards Takashi's group, "there are students relying on you."

Suddenly something darted by Shido. The man felt a mark on his left cheek with blood coming out. His followers gasped upon seeing their leader clasping his cheek while looking at Hirano with his makeshift gun pointed at them. The teacher couldn't believe that he did this to him. "Y-you shot at me."

"I missed you on purpose, you douche-bag," replied Kohta sternly.

"B-but you're not a violent student, I-"

"Shut it!" Shido couldn't speak with the gun pointed at him. Kohta went on about the abusive teacher making fun of him and allowing other students to bully him and did nothing about it. Lastly he stated that he won't hesitate to kill living people and start with the ones who made fun of him.

Shido walked back slowly with fear in his voice. "Fun of you? You misunderstood my intentions, I-" He was silenced when Kohta pointed the gun at his face.

"Enough of your lies," He looked over his right shoulder, "Saeko, Takagi, Shizuka, you three head out. I got your back in case he tries to stop you."

Saeko had a faint smirk and stood in front of the doorway, then faced Kohta. "You're such a man, I'm impressed." Later, Kohta slammed the door shut and the group ran up the stairs leaving a very pissed-off teacher in their place.

_With Naruto, Rei and Takashi_

The trio stopped 200 yards away from another bridge that was the same like the others; overflowed and guarded by either the Special Defense Forces or the American army. Naruto wasn't expecting his first Bridge World to be in such chaos, but he is here and he's helping his new friends along the way. He was standing next to the duo on their right side as they continued to stare at the bridge.

Finally Rei broke the silence. "Should we try a different route or something?" Her childhood friend looked over his right shoulder to look at her.

"I'm sure they're all the same, possibly every bridge is blocked. What's the point of policing if they're going to block it?" Takashi irritated.

Rei frowned and Naruto caught it as well seeing the same look on Takashi's face. "Listen, you guys," the two looked at the ninja, "we'll find a way, okay? You can't afford to look down on yourself, you got to keep going."

The duo smiled a little when they heard those words. Despite only knowing the blonde teenager for a day, they feel they've known him for years and could trust him with their secrets. Takashi quickly realized something and pulled out a cell phone and looked at the time.

"Damn it, we got to cross the bridge and meet at the Eastern Police Station. Naruto, any ideas?" He looked at the ninja, only to find him staring at his phone with a dumbfound look as if he never seen one before. "Naruto?"

The ninja was brought out of his state. "Huh?" he saw both teenagers staring him, which made him uncomfortable. "I've never seen that before. What is it?"

Rei and Takashi couldn't believe that Naruto, a teenager around their age, doesn't know or seen a cell phone, but the former quickly shook it off. "Look, we'll explain that to you later and as for your statement, Takashi…it's easier said than done."

Then they heard a gunshot that startled the spear martial artist "Gunshot?" asked Rei.

"No, that sounded like…"

_Back with Takashi's group_

On the bridge, Shizuka was walking backwards in fear. "You know, maybe we should've stayed with Mr. Shido." Kohta shot another nail into one of them while Saeko was away from and knocked away another one.

"Hold on. You're the one who said that he was a douchebag," remarked Saya as she got closer to Shizuka. The nurse put her finger to her chin, thinking back what she said.

"Hm, I did, but he wouldn't be the first douchebag that I met." Kohta was slowly moving as he continued firing nails into a few of them while Saeko swung her wooden sword to knock another one away.

Kohta fired another one and said. " Just to let you know, I'm running out of ammo here." Saeko swung her sword to the right, knocking another 'them' out and spun around a zombie that was behind her and horizontally swung at the thing's head, making it collapse.

Saeko faced Kohta. "Do you want to borrow this?" She gestured to her wooden sword.

"No, I'm not fond of hand-to-hand combat," replied the gun lover comically.

The swordswoman smirked and faced toward her enemies. "I can't say the same. In fact, I'm actually quite fond of it," replied the purple hair with a sadistic glint in her eyes, then she charged.

_With Naruto and Friends_

The trio was in the tunnel and in front of them was a truck with ramps facing upwards and the latter quickly realized what her crush is going to do. "Wait a minute, are you nuts?" She received no answer, but caught Naruto and Takashi sending subtle nods to each other as they continued on forward as they get closer to the truck.

_Back to Takashi's group_

One of the zombies was walking closer to Takagi who stepped back, but Shizuka bumped into her, causing both of them to fall. Consequently, their skirts flew up, revealing their undergarments and the gun lover saw them. The results were he became ensnared into a daze as he stared at them until Saeko noticed and called him out.

"Huh?" asked Kohta

"Look out behind you!" shouted Saeko as she swung her weapon into another 'them', then ran towards her ally.

The gun lover quickly turned around to see another cannibal close to him and shot another nail through its head, blood spurting from the exit hole. Another cannibal was walking towards and Kohta smirked as he pulled the trigger only to hear nothing. He quickly panicked, "I'm out!"

She was too far away to intervene until she was surrounded by a batch of 'them' and knew that they were too much. Then she heard a noise that caught the zombies' attention and her friends' as well as they look at the railing.

"That sounds like a…" Saeko looked to see a motorcycle jumped high into the air along with an unknown figure beside it. The girl looked closer to who was driving the motorcycle and smiled. "Komuro and Miyamota!"

The latter jumped of the descending motorcycle and thrust her spear into a cannibal behind Saeko as well landing on it then spun her spear in 360-degree circle, knocking out more cannibals. In mid-air, Naruto quickly drew his kunai and threw it at the cannibal close to Kohta. He smirked as the weapon lodged itself into the target's head and rolled to soften the landing, then slipped into a crouch with Tenkaichi drew in his sword arm.

Meanwhile Takashi landed on the bridge and drove towards Kohta with the pistol in his hand while running over a few undead. "Kohta! Catch it!" He threw the gun at the gun lover who caught it and a mad-crazy look appeared on his face. He fired two shots while Takashi passed him by, narrowly missing him and hit their targets.

Naruto swung his sword overhead at one of the cannibal's head, ending its rampage, but cursed himself as another one took its place. He was getting irritated since it's an endless cycle as he swung vertically downward, cutting it in half. The ninja looked around to see his friends regrouping as more cannibals was walking towards and he knew that they're too much for them, but not for him and his ninjutsu. He reappeared in front of his allies with his ninja speed, surprising them and quickly stabbed his sword into the ground, causing small spider-cracks and formed a hand-sign.

"Naruto, what are you doing? Help us!" shouted Takashi as he swung his bat to knock another cannibal away from the group, but he stepped back behind Naruto along with his friends as 'them' was walking closer to them.

The shinobi channeled his chakra. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." A strong gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and pushed back all of the cannibals with great force, sending them to the water below.

Everyone's eyes bulged out anime-style as they're trying to process what the blonde just did.

Naruto grabbed the hilt of his sword, pulled the blade out of the ground and fling it to get the blood off, not noticing the purple hair girl staring at the weapon with admiration. He turned to face Takashi's group and sheathe Tenkaichi, then waved at everyone. "Is everyone okay?"

He received no answer and was getting uncomfortable by the way they're staring at him. "Hello, Takashi, Rei, are you guys okay or what?"

Finally Rei answered. "H-how did you do that?"

"Do what?" asked Naruto innocently.

The pink hair girl shouted at him. "What do you mean 'what'? You just manipulated the wind to push back 'them' into the river. Plus, you appeared in front of him when you were on the other side. No human can do that." The ninja flinched to the girl's outburst and fixed his composure as he was looking at everyone to see any sign of injury while commenting at the girls' appearances.

"_Man, these girls are something else. The pirky blonde one has the biggest bust I've ever seen beside Grandma Tsunade, the pink hair is fine as well but her outburst tells me she's crude and as for the purple hair, I think she's the prettiest one of all them with Rei as her rival."_ He was then surprised as he was shook crazy by the chubby boy with glasses.

"Dude, you're awesome! How did you do it? Are you a super-soldier? Where did you get that uniform, cause it's awesome." Demanded the gun lover still shaking the ninja until Takashi and Rei pried him off after snapping out of their surprised state.

Naruto fixed himself and waited until the chubby teen relaxed and felt everyone's eyes on him. "Look, I'll explain how I manipulated the wind as well about my attire once we get to a secure and safe place."

The pink hair girl raised her left eyebrow. "What do you mean 'we'? You're not part of our group," Everyone's eyes were on her, "How can we trust you?"

"Really? I just saved your group from those things eating you with Rei and Takashi," replied the blonde Sage deadpanned.

Saya felt a hand on her right shoulder and found it belong to her childhood friend, Takashi. "We can trust him. He saved Rei and I and also made a promise to get us back to you guys and to get all of us safe. He kept his word so far, so I'd give him chance if I were you." The leader then took his hand off the girl genius' shoulder.

Takashi's group knew that the black-hair teenager has natural leadership skills and they trust his judgment, plus the blonde teenager emits an aura of calmness that makes them feel at ease and he just helped save them from the cannibals. The purple-hair walked forward close to Naruto and smiled while extending her hand.

"Thank you for saving us. My name is Saeko Busujimi." The Sage smiled back and took her hand, shaking it then let go. Soon the others followed and introduced themselves to the stranger.

"My name is Hirano Kohta and I'm a long-range fighter."

"I'm Shizuka Marikawa and I'm a doctor. Thank you for your help and getting Miyamota and Komuro back to us," said the pirky blonde waving at the ninja.

Naruto looked at the pink-hair to hear her name and she reluctantly complied with the others. "I-I'm Saya Takagi and what's your name?"

The shinobi smiled. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and before you start assuming, it means 'maelstrom', not 'fishcake'. Understand?" His right eye twitched little when he heard snickers from the gun lover and the busty doctor, but stopped. "So now that we're together, does anyone know what's our next move is, because the sun is setting."

Everyone widen their eyes and looked to see the sun setting and the light is slowly dissipating into darkness. They all know, at night, the city is more dangerous with the zombies prowling around and the risks of making sounds are greatly increased.

"So what should we do? The bridges are blocked and the river is too strong for us to cross. I think even heading upriver is pointless," said Takagi after observing the river below and the bridge they're on.

Shizuka quickly raised her hand. "I know. We could head to my friend's place, it's a short walk from here."

"What, your boyfriend's place?" quipped Takagi.

"No, no, it's nothing like that. It's just my girlfriend's place," Shizuka comically with a sweat-drop while getting funny looks from Kohta and Takagi, "She gave me a key, so I can look over the place while she's away."

Kohta put his finger on his chin, thinking. "Is the place a high-rise? Does it have a good view in the surroundings?" He received a nod from the doctor and she continued.

"Yes, there's also a store and a car. It's one of those military cars, the one that looks like a tank," Shizuka swung her arms, letting her assets juggled a little "It's this big!"

Saya sighed, putting her hand in the back of her head, "I don't care about a car as much as a shower. I've never felt so dirtier in my life." Kohta had hearts in his eyes as he stares lovingly at the pink genius.

"I couldn't agree with you more," said Kohta. A moment, he was kicked in the face by Takagi who took offense by the comment and the antic received a few snickers from the blonde ninja, but he stopped when Takagi gave him a death glare.

"I'm gonna go check the place out with her," declared Takashi, catching everyone's attention. He looked at Naruto, "Stay here with the others and we'll come back once it's secure." The blonde ninja nodded and he saw the boy and the doctor disappearing in the distance.

_Later (Night)_

Takashi and Shizuka brought the group back as soon it was clear. They made it to the apartment with the automatic light sensor responded to their presence. The driveway's light turned alive, revealing a huge vehicle, making the gun lover squeal in delight.

"It's a Humvee and it's the military model too," said Kohta with small pitch-black eyes, his jaws hanging and his hands twitching.

Naruto couldn't help but whistle at the design and advancement of the transportation vehicle, even though he has no idea what it is. He then heard Takagi asking about how Shizuka's friend could've afford such a vehicle and Rei pointing out the fence would keep 'them' out.

The ninja tensed when he and the group heard groaning from upstairs and drew his black blade with his clan symbol dangling. He then noticed Takashi grabbing a weapon from Takagi and stepped in front of the group. "I'll take the front. Takashi; you cover the right side, Rei; you cover the left side, Kohta; you support the rear and Saeko, you cover the center in case. Understood?"

Everyone nodded in agreement and Naruto nodded back. "Let's go," as the spiky blonde sage kick-open the fence doors in front of him and the group charged forward. A few minutes later, the group had blood stains on their clothing, including Naruto with a few stains on his flak jacket, and some on his face. He wiped the blood from his face with a rag he had in his pocket and fling his sword to get the blood off, then swiftly sheathe Tenkaichi.

The young Uzumaki then turned around to face his new friends and nodded at them before turning his body forward. "Come on, guys. After what you've been through, you'll need a good rest." He received a quiet agreement and they proceeded to the apartment after two long days of fighting and surviving chaos, except the shinobi. Naruto was the last one outside the apartment and quickly formed hand-signs, before slamming his right hand on the ground. Fuinjutsu markings originated from his hand, extending to the outside of the perimeter of the apartment and to the closed fence.

After that, Naruto stood up and sighed while running his hand through his hair. "_Nothing like an alarm system to alert you of trouble…Thanks a lot, Mito."_ The ninja smiled before he stepped in and closed the door.


	4. Relaxation and Explanation

04/20/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 4: Relaxation and Explanation

_Apartment_

After two days of fighting the now called walkers and exhaustion, the group of surviving teenagers had found a temporary haven with a fridge filled with food, a working vehicle and the mother of all them; a shower with hot water.

"Oh, this feels nice," said Rei as she slipped into the bath filled with water and soap along with Shizuka sitting in the other end of the tub.

The perky doctor sighed in relief as the cool and relaxing water touches her dirty body. "It feels like I'm melting away." The females of the group decided to take a shower together instead of taking turns for obvious reasons, plus the males.

Saya picked up a bottle as she was sitting on a bench alongside Saeko with a mirror in front of them. "This is shampoo, right?" The girl being picky as they come, despite of their world overrun with the undead.

"Good God, you're gigantic." Rei staring at Shizuka's huge assets while the latter holds them up a little.

Shizuka smiled a little. "I know. I get that a lot."

The spear martial artist chuckled a little. "Ha, almost impossible gigantic," then the girl attacked the doctor by playfully grabbing the latter's gigantic breasts, making her squeal in response.

The pink hair genius twitched her left eye, "Remind me again, why we'd have to take showers at the same time?"

Saeko looked at her while scrubbing her arm, "You know why. Don't you, Takagi?" Saya sighed in response as she looked back to see the female duo wrestling in the bathtub and was surprised and quickly faced forward while scrubbing her hair frantically.

"Yeah, but given the circumstances, I don't think we should be doing this," said Saya unsuspecting what her friend next to her is going to do. The swordswoman turned the knob to cold in the showerhead and spray the pink hair, making her squeal in response.

Saeko smiled with her eyes closed. "Wow, I didn't know that you have such a nice voice. Boys must be falling for you all over in high school," unbeknownst to her, Saya retaliated by dropping a bucket of cold water on her back, making her moan in delight. She looked at the brains of the group to see her with a grin on her face.

"Hey, you started it," remarked Saya. After that, the girls started to play around with each other, shouting playfully and letting three certain males listen.

_Upstairs in Bedroom_

"Sounds like they're having fun," said Takashi listening to the sounds. He and his friend, Kohta, founded a few boxes of ammunition in one of the lockers with the latter trying to open the other, suspecting that there are guns in it.

"Want to take a peek? You know we're supposed to, right?" asked Kohta while trying to pick the lock.

Takashi shook his head, "No, thanks, man. I actually don't want to die." He and the gun lover heard sloshing, so they turned their faces to the stairs where Naruto was carrying a bucket of water with a clean rag on the side of it. He set the bucket in front of the bed, facing the duo, then took off his sword and set it beside him. Then the ninja took off his bloodied flak jacket and placed it in the bucket and started scrubbing it with the rag.

"Hey, Naruto," Kohta called out, getting the blonde's attention, "do you want to sneak a peek at the girls?"

The shinbo shook his head. "I actually want to live, thank you very much. And nothing good can come out of it, believe me." He continued scrubbing the blood off his jacket.

Takashi and Hirano raised their eyebrows with the latter having a grin on his face. "Oh, you got caught, didn't you?" Naruto shook his head and looked at the duo.

"No, but my late sensei did. When he was young, he spied on his fellow teammate and when he got caught, he paid for it. He recieved several rib fractures and several organ damage by the girl," replied Naruto as he continued scrubbing, and smirked when he saw the terrified look on Hirano's face. The ninja's smirk turned into a mischievous grin, scaring Hirano as well making the latter sweating bullets like crazy. "Go ahead, I'll send flowers to your funeral."

Images of the girls with evil looks with their weapons and the intent to harm overwhelmed the gun lover to the point that he almost peed himself and Naruto was laughing as hell, clutching his sides.

"Shh, Naruto, don't attract attention to ourselves," said Hirano as he tried to shush the unknown ninja for a few minutes until the latter finally calmed down. The marksman sighed and fixed his glasses, "Want to help us get this door open?"

The blonde stopped and thought about it for a moment, "Nope, you ladies got it." Tick marks appeared on the duo's heads when they heard the 'ladies' comment and stick their tongues at the ninja who stuck his tongue as well before continuing scrubbing the blood off.

"Fine, we don't need you. Come on, Komuro," said Hirano as he lodged a wrench between the doors with the former grabbing the top of the wrench. "Ready? Now!" The two grunted in response as they continue to put more pressure and strength until the door gave way, causing Takashi to lose his balance and fell on his butt.

"Ow, that hurt," said the leader as he rubbed his back. Hirano looked inside and automatically grinned like a madman again as he pulled out a weapon from the locker, examining it.

Naruto's eyes widen in surprise when his chubby friend brought a larger version of the gun that Takashi pulled on him when he first arrived in their world. "_Man, the technology here is ridiculously more advanced then weapons in my world, both weaponry and transportation."_ He continued to listen to Kohta talking about the other weapons like the mad and crazy fan he is until the ninja heard screaming and he looked up to see Takashi pointing one of the guns at Kohta.

"Hey man, don't ever point that thing at anyone, even if it's not loaded," said Kohta comically panicking before a serious face appeared, "the only time you should use it is to kill."

"Yeah, but I hope it doesn't come to 'that', you know," said Takashi catching Naruto's attention when he finished scrubbing the blood from his jacket and hanged it on the railing for it to dry. The ninja soon realized that if should one of them gets infected by the walkers, one of them must shoot them with no second thought. He heard clanging and turned around to see the chubby gun lover trying to lift his sword but it wouldn't move for some reason, which confused the trio.

"Hirano, what are you doing?" asked the blonde with the former looking at him nervously.

"Hehehe, I-I just wanted to see your sword, but I can't seem to pick it up," replied Kohta as he puts more effort but to no avail.

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and walked over to his friend and gestured him to move aside, which the latter did. Then the ninja grabbed the hilt of the sword and sheathe and simply picked it up with no trouble, lastly he faced both Kohta and Takashi with the former greatly confused. "I can pick it up just fine. Are you sure you weren't playing around?"

Kohta pointed his finger comically at the blonde, "Yes, I'm sure that I wasn't playing around. How come you lift it so easily and I can't?" The question did intrigue the wielder of Tenkaichi as he slung the blade over his right shoulder. "_Could it be that only I can use Tenkaichi since it's a part of me and whatnot? I should've asked the old man about this."_ He was brought out of his train of thoughts when Hirano called Takashi to help load the bullets into the magazines, so he decided to head outside to the balcony.

As he stepped out to the balcony and leaned forward on the railing, Naruto looked up in the stars and the clouds that drifting by, making the latter smile. "_Even if it is a little break, it sure is a bit peaceful tonight."_ The few minutes of silence passed by for the ninja until he heard noises and Takashi came out with a set of binoculars and looked through them, facing the bridge nearby.

"What's happening over there, Takashi?" asked Naruto after a few moments.

The black hair leader took the binoculars from his eyes and said, "Chaos. The police are holding a barricade and keeping the uninfected away from the walkers, but they're not letting the uninfected get into the city."

The blonde sighed in response as he run his hand through his hair before getting back inside the bedroom and sat on the floor, beside Kohta while leaning against the bed. He watched his friend putting the last of the bullets into the magazine before slamming it into the gun and set it in front of him. Then Kotha looked at the blonde, staring at his uniform before disturbing him.

"Hey, Naruto," the blonde opening his left eye only and looked at the corner of the eye, "now that we're in a secure place, can you tell us about yourself and your ability to manipulate wind?" Takashi came in after he heard his fellow classmate and sat next to Kohta, both staring at the ninja.

Naruto opened his right eye and looked at the duo, "Look, my lie is a very long story and I don't like to repeat it because it's a huge drag. I'll tell you guys about when everyone is here. Understand?" He received nods from the pouted high schoolers, then closed his eyes as he goes into a needed rest or so he thought he was going to…

_Naruto's Mindscape_

The young Sage felt his consciousness being pulled, so he opened his eyes and found himself in front of his partner, Kurama. "Kurama, what is it, bud?"

"Naruto, it's time to start training," replied the fox, surprising his Jinchuriki.

Naruto blinked for a few seconds, "Really? Okay, then. Can't let either of us get weak just because we're in another world. Not that I'm saying that you would get weak, Kurama since you are the strongest Tailed Beast." He see a smirk on his partner's face before slipping into his Frog Kata stance and the former crouching with his tails swinging freely behind him.

"Ready, kid?"

"Ready, Kurama."

The duo charged at each other with Naruto jumping high into the air and was about to land a punch at the fox's face until a sudden shockwave happened, causing the blonde to lose his concentration while in mid-air. "What the heck was that?" He didn't receive a verbal answer but a physical answer.

"Oh," exclaimed Naruto as he was hurdling through the air until he fixed himself and landed on the ground while skidding on the water-soaked floor, until finally stopping 20 yards from the fox. The latter had a grin, which made Naruto have a tick mark to appear on his hand and pointed his finger at the beast.

The blonde Sage comically complaining, "That was a cheap shot right there, and you know it, Kurama." The fox laughed at his jinchuriki's antic and he stopped, but still had the grin on his face.

"You better check it out. Your new friends must be waiting for you," said Kurama with the same grin, watching the grumbling jinchuriki disappeared.

_Real World_

"Damn cheating fox," Naruto grumbled softly to himself as he opened his eyes. He looked to his right to see Kohta standing all freaked-out until he looked to his left and he was stunned with his jaw slightly opened. He saw Takashi touching the towel-bound doctor's huge assets before quickly retracting them and looked down.

"Sorry about that," Takashi apologizing timidly. He saw Naruto with his jaw opened and was about to say something, but the busty doctor cut him off.

"Kotha, darling," said the drunken blonde crawling over to the corner of the bed, with the gun lover frozen in place. "W-Who, me? Darling?"

The ninja quickly stood up next to Takashi, watching the doctor get closer to Hirano. Their jaws dropped when she kissed him on the cheek, causing the boy's face to blush madly and both males sweat-dropped when blood comically spurt out of the gun lover's nose before fainting.

"Looks like he can't handle a simple kiss," remarked Naruto before Shizuka set her eyes on him and lunged at him, but the former was quick on his feet and put the unsuspected Takashi in front of him, who blushed when the doctor was leaning on his chest before falling asleep.

Takashi glared at the smirking ninja, "Naruto, why'd you do that?"

"Because I can," replied Naruto simply. He walked to the stairs, leaving behind a protesting Takashi and continued walking down until he reached the bottom of the stairs, and his face blushed overly red by the sight he's seeing now in the kitchen.

The Kenjutsu female warrior was wearing an apron that covered her naked body, a black thong and her purple hair was tied into a single ponytail. She was currently cooking something and didn't notice the blushing blonde until the latter slapped him-self good. Saeko blushed when she noticed the blushes on Naruto's face. "Sorry about the outfit. My clothes were bloody and they're in the washer. This is all I can wear for now."

Naruto snapped out of his daze, "No, no, no, you look great. It's just…I wasn't expecting any of you ladies to be out of the shower already." He noticed Rei, in her pajamas, walking towards him and knew that she was drunk like Shizuka upstairs since her eyes were droopy and her speech was slurring.

"Hey, Rei," greeted the Jinchuriki.

The spear martial artist looked at him and asked, "W-where i-is T-Takashi?" Naruto pointed up and the girl walked upward while stumbling at the same time with the blonde ninja walking into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He felt a pair of eyes staring at him and looked at Saeko, but he noticed her gaze was upon Tenkaichi and smiled.

"Can't stop looking at my sword, huh?" asked Naruto, causing his female companion to blush a little. He drew the black blade with it facing downward, gesturing Saeko to grab the hilt.

Saeko was surprised, "Really?" She saw Naruto nodded and so she extended her hand to wield the blade. The blonde Sage was expecting something to happen, but he was surprised when his female counterpart grabbed the hilt and held it like nothing.

Then he heard his partner say something. "_Hmm, that's interesting."_

"_What's interesting, Kurama?" _asked Naruto mentally.

"_It seem that your sword can be wielded by others if you give them permission to do so. Remember when the fat kid tried to pick up Tenkaichi, but couldn't? He didn't ask for your permission or you allowing him. For her, you gave her permission to wield the blade and nothing happened," _replied the tailed fox with his jinchuriki nodding briefly as he watched the beauty in front of him admiring his weapon.

"_That is interesting. Do you think the old man kept this knowledge out or he didn't know it him-self?" _asked the whiskered ninja.

The fox thought about this for a few moments, then replied. "_I don't think that he knew. Remember he said he didn't forge his sword and he couldn't unlock the full potential of his weapon?"_ He received a mental 'yes' from Naruto and continued, "_He couldn't have known about it. We should take precautions and observe everything regarding the blade to fully understand it."_

"_Sounds like a plan, Kurama. Thanks."_ And with that, Naruto ended the mental link with his partner just in time to hear Saeko's question.

"This is a very fine sword. Does it have a name?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, it's called Tenkaichi." He saw the purple-hair smile and felt blood rushing to his face as he tries not to let his late sensei's pervert ways take over. "_Damn you, pervy sage."_ Then he noticed that he was staring at her, making the latter female blush and fixed himself.

"Sorry about staring at you like that. I-it's just that you're really beautiful, obviously that you've made it to the top of my 'The Hottest Women I've Ever Met' list," said Naruto sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.

Now Saeko was blushing madly when she heard the compliment from the blonde and was thinking about the time that Naruto will tell her and the rest of the group about himself and his apparent ability to manipulate the wind and his abnormal speed. Also she couldn't help feeling safe near the blonde swordsman and liked his kindness as his honesty and his physical appearance. He would be eye candy for girls around their age and perhaps women older than they are.

Naruto held out his hand in front of Saeko, with the latter realizing that the former would like his blade back, "Here you go." She gave the weapon back the ninja and watched him sheathed it. Then the duo heard footsteps from the stairs and looked to find Takashi carrying a passed-out and towel-covered Shizuka on his back. The ninja got close to the purple-hair and whispered, "How long do you think he'll notice you?"

"Not long," Saeko quickly replied with pride and Naruto looking at her in surprise by her response, then smirked. The two continued to watch the apparent oblivious and tired Takashi head to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water while heading back to the stairs until he noticed Naruto and the half-naked Saeko and covered his nose to stop it from bleeding.

"Haha, you were right, Saeko. It didn't take him long," said Naruto trying to stop himself to laugh more while Saeko smiled at the awe-stricken leader before continuing to cook. The ninja noticed Takashi still staring at Saeko and decided that he let him enjoy the show, so he walked to the living room and sat down with his eyes closed.

_Naruto's Mindscape_

"Fox! Where are you?! You and I have unfinished business to attend to," exclaimed Naruto. Soon, the tailed beast appeared, staring at his jinchuriki with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Yes, we do, but first…" replied Kurama with Naruto waiting for him to continue, "change the place in here. It'd be better if we have a more appropriate training/battleground."

Naruto blinked for a few moments as he processed what the mighty Tailed Beast had just asked him before smiling. "Sure and I couldn't agree with you more." The ninja closed his eyes and focused for a minute before opening his eyes as he takes in the new area that he just created. Vast lands of green open field with tall grass, trees that are taller than him, but shorter than Kurama. On his right, he finds a huge cave that was next to a waterfall and knew that this was perfect for his partner, speaking of which…

"Wait a minute…where is that big lug anyway?" asked a bewildered Naruto as he turned around, searching for his sparring partner. "Man, while I'm taking sightseeing, Kurama took the advantage to hide and is probably planning his attack by now…Why am I talking to myself like this?"

He continued to search for the Tailed Beast until he noticed a shadow looming over him and looked up with his eyes bulged out anime style when the ninja saw his opponent free-falling with his claws pointing at him. Naruto panicked frantically before leapt backwards in a considerable distance with the fox landed on the ground, kicking up dust.

Kurama looked to his right when the dust cleared and found a seething Naruto with gritted teeth, staring at him and asked innocently, "What's with the look, Naruto?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THAT, KURAMA? YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE AND TRIED TO KILL ME JUST NOW! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS?!" replied Naruto frantically with his right arm pointing at the fox.

The multi-tailed beast replied, "You should always be on your guard, Naruto, regardless of anything." The ninja took in the advice and admitted that he did let his guard down when he was looking around the new 'mindscape' and slipped into his Frog Kata stance with his partner smirking at the gesture and crouched.

"This isn't like last time, Naruto. You caught me off-guard, but that won't happen again."

"That's where you're wrong, Kurama. It will happen again," said Naruto as yellow irises with toad-like pupils and an orange-reddish pigmentation around his eyes appeared.

Kurama narrowed his eyes upon seeing the transformation, "Hhmm, Sage Mode." He then saw his jinchuriki draw Tenkaichi and charged at him. Naruto complied as he charged at the fox with his weapon ready and both opponents swung their sword and claw respectively when they got close.

_10 minutes later_

Naruto planted Tenkaichi into the ground, sat on the ground with his hands supporting him, panting slightly. He looks across from to see Kurama lying down, panting slightly as well. Both Jinchuriki and Tailed Beast had scratches, bruises respectively with the latter deactivating his Sage Mode and his breathing got slightly hard after. Soon the duo started to laugh after one of the best sparring matches they've ever had until the blonde stopped.

"That was a good workout, huh, Kurama?" asked Naruto smiling.

Kurama scoffed. "We could've gone a lot longer and you know it, Naruto."

"Hey, I can't afford to weaken myself in the outside world while I'm training in here," remarked the ninja.

"Naruto, my and your healing abilities can take care of that," replied Kurama, making the shinobi gulped as he just remembered his healing powers as well with the former sighed, "Really, Naruto, you got to start remembering the important things."

The Jinchuriki was about to say something, but he felt an alarm ringing inside his head. "_The fuinjutsu outside the perimeter…it's been triggered. I got to check it out." _He got up and said, "Kurama, we'll continue this conversation another time," Naruto grabbing Tenkaichi and sheathed it, "I'll be back."

With that, the sage disappeared from the mindscape, leaving the fox to fall asleep in his new 'chambers' inside the cave.

_Real World_

His eyes opened suddenly and quickly rose where he heard Saeko upstairs. Naruto used his shinobi speed to get there and appeared behind both the swordswoman and the gun lover, startling them both.

"Naruto! Oh, man, good timing," said Kohta before firing another round down the street level.

"What's happening?" asked a serious Naruto as he got closer to the balcony. Saeko handed him the binoculars and pointed at a house below across the street. The ninja looked through the binoculars and fixed his stare to the house where he saw Takashi grabbed a little girl and carried her on his back as he jumped on the fences, but found himself surrounded by a huge group of walkers. "

The Sage took the binoculars away from his eyes and set them on the floor before he tighten his headband with Saeko and Kotha noticing with the latter fired another round.

"Naruto?" asked Saeko.

Naruto looks at her, "Saeko, get ready to open the door and the fence for Takashi and the girl. Kohta, you keep maintaining cover and whatever happens…don't let the others out of this apartment. Understand?" He received reluctant nods from the duo before jumping off the balcony, freefalling to the street and leaving two teenagers with anime bulged out eyes. The ninja channeled chakra to his feet and planted them into the wall, sticking to it before scaling downward and leapt into an open space, far from the large group of walkers.

"Okay," Naruto with Tenkaichi drawn in his right arm/sword arm, "time to call their attention." He used his free arm and put his left index finger and thumb and whistled loudly. The sound echoed in the surrounding area, soon died out with the undead turning away from the duo on the fence and heading towards the origin of the sound.

"Who whistled?" whispered Takashi while carrying the girl. He looked to his right where he saw the blonde swordsman down the street. "He's drawing their attention, so we can get back to the apartment. Hang on, okay?" The girl nodded and the boy jumped off the fence and ran back to the fence with a small white dog following them. He discovered Saeko waiting by the fence and entered through the fence and to the door of the building.

Meanwhile Naruto analyzed the huge group and discovered that the narrow street with the walls enclosed them and smiled as he channeled wind chakra into his blade and swung it horizontally, letting loose a blue crescent-like chakra. The edges of the energy cut the walls, leaving sharp marks on them as the attack make its way to the unsuspecting crowd of the undead, cutting through like paper with blood gushing and splattering on the floor. The chakra attack dissipated after cutting the last walker with Kohta shocked out of his mind.

"Hhm," Naruto looking at his sword, "this sword will come a long way for me." After sheathing Tenkaichi and observing the massive pool of blood flooding the street in front of him, the ninja leapt on the wall and scaled up the wale with his chakra-imbued feet. When he got to the balcony and off the wall, he was grabbed by the arms and being shook like a rag doll again by the gun lover with stars in his eyes.

"Dude, how did you do that? You got to teach me that!" asked Kotha still shaking the ninja until Takashi and Saeko pried him off the blonde who fell to the ground. Both of Naruto's eyes was replaced by spirals as a result from the shaking. Rei joined the commotion along with the now-awaken Shizuka and Saya after hearing Kotha's proclamation.

"What happened to Naruto?" asked Rei while looking at him.

Takashi replied while calming down Kotha, " 'who' is the better question." He leveled his head to the gun lover who finally calmed down.

"Kotha…"said Saya fixing her glasses as she got closer to the former, "why did you shake Naruto again?"

"He did an awesome thing; he unleashed some sort of energy from his sword and it cut through the walkers like nothing. Then he walked on the walls like it's second nature," replied Kohta.

Naruto groaned, shaking his head and stood up while rubbing both of his arms from the grip of his overweight friend until he felt everyone's eyes on him. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"First, your manipulation of the wind, your inhumane speed and now you can walk on walls as well manipulate some energy? I think it's time that you tell us about yourself," said Saya, glaring at the blonde. Naruto felt uncomfortable by the glare from the pink girl, soon noticing everyone staring at him as they wait for an answer.

Naruto was thinking of an answer until he yawned and silently thanked the action. "Sorry, guys," he faked a yawn as well stretch his arms to sell it, "But I'm beat from the walker slaying and you guys still need rest. I'll explain everything…tomorrow."

With that, the ninja walked past the group and went downstairs and slept on the floor with one of the couch pillows and Tenkaichi beside him. Meanwhile, the others were talking about the ninja's notion and agreed that they should sleep as well with Shizuka sleeping with the young girl and the dog.

_The Next Day, Morning_

Naruto stirred in his sleep as he was having a nightmare about his defeat by the Ten Tails until he felt a wet substance on his cheek. "_What's going on?"_ He opened his eyes and turned his face to the left where a small white puppy standing with its tail wagging. The ninja sit upright in surprise as he stare at the small canine before smiling and petted it as well standing up. He stretched his arms, legs and back, popping a few joints before grabbing Tenkaichi.

He looked at the clock on the wall, "Hm, 7:00 a.m., huh?" The ninja looked around to find the nurse with the little girl and the genius still sleeping on separate couches and assumed that everyone else is asleep as well.

"Hehe, I bet they don't mind me getting some fresh air," his nose picked a unfamiliar and uncomfortable scent, realizing that he smells horrible, "I should probably take a shower first." He grabbed a towel before entering into the bathroom, took off his clothes and enjoyed the heavenly touch of the shower. Five minutes, later he exited the room with his hair freshly dried with his clothes and headband on.

Naruto went up the stairs and found Takashi on the floor, Rei and Saeko on the bed and Kotha on the other side of the room on the floor as well. He quietly walked past them while putting on the flack jacket and opened the door without letting the canine out and closed it, then slung his black sword over his right shoulder before channeling chakra to his feet and leapt high across the street to the building in front of him. Then he continued leaping across buildings as he explores the surrounding area.

He jumped across another building until the former heard his partner calling him and stopped close to the edge, "_Kurama, what's up?"_

"_I've been thinking about this world and the people's attire…I think you should change your ninja gear,"_ replied the fox.

Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "_What do you mean by that?"_ There was nothing wrong with his ninja attire. Or is there?

"_I mean that you should blend in with the people here. Your attire clearly makes you stand out from everybody,"_ said Kurama, making the sage think about it. His ninja attire clearly projects unknown design and with the world in its current state, they can see him as a major threat and will attack him if they get an opportunity.

"_Hm, I think you have a good point, Kurama. Thanks, bud,"_ said Naruto receiving an approved growl from the fox. "Looks like I have some shopping to do…can't believe I just said that." He leapt onto few several buildings before stopping on a building that was across from a clothing store and a few walkers around. "What a way to start the day…hey, I just made a rhyme, hehehe."

Naruto jumped off the building and landed in crouch while drawing Tenkaichi with its chain and Uzumaki symbol dangling, making a small noise. The walkers turned their heads to the origin of the sound and started walking towards the smirking ninja. He pointed his sword at an overweight walker and said, "Let's dance, tubby." As he said that, the ninja charged, swung his blade downward on the walker, splitting it in half. Then he swung upward for an overhead strike on another walker, taking its head and spun quick to kick the third walker that lunged at him, sending it to crash through the store's display window. He walked towards the last walker that was crawling towards due to having no legs and had a sad look as he watched the once-alive person crawl towards him before holding Tenkaichi's blade downward with both hands on the hilt and thrust it through the walker's head.

The Sage sighed as he pulled the blade from the head with his sword arm, causing blood to flow beneath the skull. He swiftly flicked his sword to the right, causing a minor blood splatter on the street before walking over the body and to the store. The blonde ninja pulled out a kunai from his hip pouch in a reverse grip and readied his sword as he entered the building with his ninja senses on high alert.

"Okay, now where are the clothes section for the men?" asked Naruto to himself as he walked up the stairs that led to the second level where he found clothes for men. "Bingo," as he put away the kunai and stabbed the Tenkaichi to the ground next to him to look for clothing that will compose his new attire.

A few minutes passed by as Naruto set his ninja attire in front of him and said, "There we go. This should make me blend in with this world." He sported dark blue jeans, a black belt, a black t-shirt and a orange jacket while still sporting his sandals and headband. Also he putted the hip pouch safely hidden under the jacket and grabbed a medium scroll, opened it with a fuinjutsu sealing in the center and put the ninja attire on it. Naruto made a few seals before the clothes disappeared in a puff of smoke, scrolled it up and put it inside the pouch. Lastly, he grabbed Tenkaichi and sprinted out of the store and jumped onto a building.

The Jinchuriki finally made it back to the apartmen and quietly opened the slide door, stepping inside and closed it, "Okay, now I should make something to…" He stopped when he smelled a tempting aroma coming from the kitchen and sprinted with a third of his speed, causing the window glass to break. Naruto found delicious plates of eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins and juince and was about to stuff them into his face until he felt something staring at him, so he turned his head to his left. He saw Saeko, Rei, Saya and Shizuka in their outfits, with slight modifications, staring at him with shock expressions, then turned his head to his right where Takashi, Kohta and the young girl was staring at him with the same expression.

"Hehehe, hi, guys. Good Morning," said Naruto sheepishly.

"Hey, morning, Naruto. Nice clothes," replied Kotha.

"Thanks, man," replied the ninja as he watched the chubby kid reaching for an bacon but was stopped when Saya hit his hand with a spoon.

"OW, that hurts, Takagi," complained Kotha, rubbing his hand while looking at the pink haired girl.

"Yes, it should. So, don't start grabbing food yet. You wait until everyone is at the table," said Takagi picking up one of the plates with Saeko, Shizuka, and Rei did the same and walked over to a table with enough chairs for all of them, including the young girl.

"All right, everyone. Dig in," said Rei happily.

"Don't need to tell me twice," replied Naruto as he chow on the eggs, bacon and sausages, then he noticed the girl, "What's your name?"

"My name is Alice," replied the girl all cheery with everyone else smiled. Several minutes later, the group was sitting on their seats, feeling relaxed as their stomachs are filled with food that will help them survive a bit longer, then Saya gave Shizuka a subtle nod and the doctor told the young girl to take a shower and pointed where the bathroom was located.

As the girl was out of hearing distance and in the shower, everyone had their eyes on the blonde ninja who was chewing on a bacon when he saw the stares from everyone and swallowed it. Naruto sighed and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"First, your ability to manipulate the wind and your speed," replied Saya.

The Sage nodded, "Well, I used my chakra to control the wind." He saw everyone giving him the 'what the hell are you talking about' look. "You don't know what that is, huh? I should've figured."

"What is this chakra?" asked Rei.

"Chakra is a combination of the body's physical energy and spiritual energy within every living being. Everybody in my world-," Naruto gulped when he accidently slipped the last two words, and everyone heard it.

"My world?" asked Takagi suspicious.

Naruto lowered his head a little, "…I'm not from this world." He saw everyone's widen until the gun lover's eyes turned into huge stars with the latter popping the next question.

"Are you a superhuman?" asked the excited Hirano.

The Sage shook his head and continued, "I guess you could say that, but I'm really not. You see, my people and I can use chakra to increase our strength, speed, endurance, stamina as well techniques."

Takashi raised an eyebrow, "Techniques?"

"There are three types of skills that the ninja and I myself use in my world; Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu," the leader's eyes widen along with everyone and the stars in Kotha's eyes got bigger, "Taijutsu is basically hand-to-hand combat. Genjutsu is the field of using illusions to confuse opponents and ninjutsu requires us to use hand-seals and chakra to perform supernatural feats as well manipulate the elements around us to gain advantage during battle like when I use the wind to blow away the walkers on the bridge."

Naruto continued explaining, "This wouldn't have been possible without the Father of All Ninja; the Sage of the Six Paths. He defeated the most powerful demon in my world…the Ten Tailed Beast." The teenagers felt chills in their spines when they heard the name, "The Ten Tails was said to be the creator of all life in my world, but its revival also meant the end of all life as well. The Sage split the beast's chakra into nine separate beings called the Tailed Beasts and gave them names; Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki and lastly Kurama." He continued about the descendants of the Six Paths, the clans and formations of the Hidden Villages, the Fourth Shinobi World War and his training with the Six Paths including his mission, heritage and status as Kurama's jinchuriki.

Everyone's minds were blown away when they heard of this revelation and had the same question, but Takagi beat them to it. "Can you teach us how to use chakra?"

The jinchuriki shook his head, "No. You see, we were trained at a young age to develop our chakra pathways and chakra circulatory system, making them stronger over time to use chakra properly. If you use chakra now, you'd die."

"So you're only going to be here for two months, then you move onto another world to retrieve one of these Sealing Keys?" asked Kotha, receiving a nod from the ninja.

"Yes, but don't worry. I'm keeping my promise to get you guys to a safe and secure facility," said Naruto. Everyone's brow was cocked when they heard the last few words.

"What do you mean 'a safe and secure facility'? This is safe for us," said Shizuka.

"This apartment is only temporary. We need to move to a much secured place. How long do you think those things will barge through the doors?" asked the ninja. Takashi thought about it and knew that Naruto brought a good point, plus he and Rei need to find their parents and with the ninja's help, they have a greater chance of success of finding them.

"He's right," everyone looked at Takashi, "We need to get out of here and cross the river. Also we need to find our parents." With that, the group unanimously agreed and stated to meet outside by the Humvee in 10 minutes.

_10 Minutes Later_

The group met by the Humvee with the girls putting the weapons inside the vehicle and Shizuka starting the engine, bringing it to life. Everyone climbed aboard and the blonde doctor stepped on the gas, drove through the fence with the gun lover giving a loud 'whoo'.

Meanwhile Naruto was thinking to himself about how his friends took in the news and smiled to himself as he closed his eyes for a nap, not noticing Saeko looking at him and a smile appeared on her face as well.

(Naruto's Universe)

_Somwhere on the Ocean_

There was a huge island with huge mountains, huge dead trees and dark clouds hovered over it. In the center of the island, there lies a creature sleeping with its tails by it-self. The creature's eye opened slightly, revealing multiple Sharigan tomoes, growling as if it was disturbed by an unknown force or annoyance.

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	5. The Unexpected

05/03/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 5: The Unexpected

(Naruto's Universe)

_The Island_

The silhouette of the beast and its tails is vague because of the shadows of the mountain towers over it, but its eye pierces through the darkness. The beast lowered its right hand and dug one of its claws into the ground, channeled its demonic chakra and retracted the claw.

Moments passed until the chakra exploded from the hole, disappearing from the Ten Tail's sight. A few minutes later, the energy returned to the hole with someone supporting itself on one knee and its head facing down as if it was bowing before the demon. The body resembled an old man as his skin was frail and his hair was white.

The Ten Tails chuckled as it told its follower to rise as the latter did. His body was surrounded by black chakra as a result from the Ten Tails' chakra. The chakra was configuring the figure's body as it was restoring its youth. A few moments later, the chakra disappeared revealing the follower. The man was tall, had brown hair, wearing arm bracers with spikes and the gloves were the same. He also sported a flak jacket similar to the Hidden Leaf's and a forehead protector with the kanji 'Ten Tails.' His eyes were closed until he opened them, revealing no pupils, all black and the man was flexing his hands as if he felt stronger and looked up at his new master.

"Henchman, I have a job for you to accomplish and you will not fail," said the Ten Tails with a menacing grin on its face.

(HSD Universe)

_With the Group_

The group was in their new vehicle, courtesy of Shizuka's friend, as they were crossing the river to get to the other side. The busty doctor was driving the Humvee with Saya in the passenger seat and Rei, Takashi, Naruto and Saeko in the back with Kotha poking his head out of the hole on the roof with Alice, keeping watch.

The blonde jinchuriki was sleeping along with the dog sleeping on his lap as well Saeko was sleeping against his left shoulder. Rei and Takashi were sleeping with the former leaning against the latter's right shoulder until she heard Saya chewing out Kohta for teaching Alice an inappropriate song before returning to the car seat.

The slender martial artist looked at her childhood friend, and blushed as she watches him. Then she looked at Naruto and Saeko sleeping together with the former snoring and the latter drooling on the boy's jacket, prompting Rei to wake Takashi in a teasing way. She pulled the boy's cheek and let it go, slapping the leader out of his sleep.

"OW! Rei, why'd you do that?" asked Takashi rubbing his cheek. Rei turned his head to Naruto and Saeko and both were out of it. "They'd make a nice couple, don't you think?" Rei agreed as she stared Takashi before waking the blonde ninja in the same manner she did to her friend.

"OW! Okay, who's the wise guy that did that?" asked Naruto rubbing his cheek. He saw Rei with a smirk on her face and a tick mark appeared on his head. "You're the one who did it?"

"Must be nice, huh?" asked Rei teasingly, confusing the ninja.

"Huh?" Naruto looked to his left shoulder to find a drooling Saeko sleeping on him and a blush appeared on his face. Soon the woman woke up groggily and was confused until she found herself leaning close to Naruto and a blush appeared on her face as well. The duo stared at each other for a few minutes until they simultaneously looked away from each other. "G-Good Morning, Saeko."

"Good Morning, Naruto," said Saeko wiping the drool from her mouth, still blushing. Then they both heard barking from the dog with smiles both on their faces until Naruto looked at Saeko again.

The ninja was about to say something until he heard Kotha call his name. "Yeah, what'd you need?" The gun lover retracted his head from the hole with Alice following him. Kohta stretched out his right arm with a closed fist facing upward, then opened it. Naruto saw a weird black device on the boy's palm and picked it up, taking a closer inspection and realized that it tells time as well the date, month and year. "What is it, Kotha?"

"This, my ninja friend, is a watch, but not just any watch. This is a G-Shock, one of the best watches in the world and it can help you keep track of your staying here, plus it can be a souvenir for you," replied Kotha, surprising Naruto of the device's features as well putting it on his left wrist, which was a perfect fit.

The Jinchuriki smiled as he looked at his new watch, then he and the others felt the Humvee reached the other side and stopped. The group got out of the vehicle to stretch out their weary bones, then the males carefully climbed up the hill with their heads poked out. "Okay, it looks clear on my end, what about you guys?"

Takashi looked at him, "It's clear."

"Yeah, but it's quiet. Too quiet," said Kotha to himself. He heard screaming and looked to his left in time to see Humvee tower over Naruto who dodged out of the way and comically shouting at the blonde doctor until he calmed down. "Hehehe, he's definitely going make things real fun for us." The males went back to the muscle vehicle with Takashi sitting on the back with Rei before driving into the distance.

_Few Hours Later, Evening_

The vehicle transporting the survivors was making tons of noise and yet, there was no sign of the walkers or the living and that made Naruto uneasy as they continue on their path. He was sitting next to the window behind Saya, Kotha was sitting next to Alice playing a game with and Saeko was on the other side of the vehicle. "_It's been hours since we've seen a walker and I have this…unfortunate feeling that something is going to happen…and soon."_ The ninja was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a presence sitting next to him, and looked to see the female swordsmen there smiling at him.

"Hello, Naruto." Saeko still smiling with her eyes closed with Naruto smiling back.

"Hey, Saeko, how's it going with you, besides the chaos with the walkers and the deranged people?" asked Naruto as he looked at the purple hair girl, trying not to divert his eyes on her bosom and waiting for her answer.

"Besides killing the undead, I'm doing fine and you?" asked Saeko as she waits for the blonde's answer. She found Naruto's eyes to be very attractive and shook her head to stop herself from getting lost to them.

The Sage responded back. "I'm doing fine, thanks to that nap I took and…other things." Saeko was confused, then a blush appeared on her face when she realized about the 'awakening' in the morning.

"Hahahaha, don't feel embarrassed, Saeko. I admit that it was a surprise, but you are beautiful and you shouldn't be ashamed of that," said Naruto smiling while staring at the girl who was blushing more after the comment and quietly chuckled to himself.

"_He isn't afraid to express his opinion and integrity to anyone, especially towards women. Plus, he faced so many hard obstacles in his childhood and he could've succumbed to the darkness, but he didn't. He's a strong man and a warrior,"_ thought Saeko after controlling the blush. She opened her mouth to say something, but the car suddenly swerved, stunning the duo. They see Shizuka trying to frantically control the vehicle, then felt the car making a sharp left turn as if she thought it would stop the vehicle, but that made it worse. The Humvee was skidding sideways, heading towards to a wall and fast with the sage opening the door.

"_We're heading towards that wall. Got to stop this before—"_ Naruto widen his eyes when he saw Rei falling over the car with her face terrified and quickly shunshined.

The girl closed her eyes as she got closer to the ground, preparing herself for the pain that comes after the impact, but strangely she didn't feel anything but something soft yet hard. Rei opened her eyes to find Naruto carrying her bridal-style with a small blush appearing on her face, so she slightly looked down to hide it.

Naruto, however, looked to his left to find a huge group of walkers slouching towards them. Then he saw the group, except Shizuka, get out of the car and prepared to fight them. The blonde ninja set Rei down and stood up, drawing Tenkaichi followed by the girl readying her bayonet-equipped rifle, then he, Rei, and Saeko charged at the walkers while Takashi and Kotha provided long-distance cover-fire.

The purple hair swung her wooden sword at the first walker's head, then spun around it to thrust her weapon into another lunging from her left side and quickly pulled the weapon before she jumped over a third one while stabbing the wooden sword into the head and hurled it over her head after landing on the ground, hurtling it through its fellow walkers. She heard a whistle and looked to her right to see Naruto staring at her with a look saying 'Not bad', before swinging his black sword in a overhead to a walker in his right without looking and charging towards another walker with Rei on his left side.

Takashi fired another round at one of the walkers, still providing cover-fire for three hand-to-hand combatants while a sadistic look until he heard tires screeching coming from behind the fence wall and looked back to see someone in a firefighter's outfit and a hose. The person rushed toward the wall, pointed the hose at one of the walkers and released tons of water, pushing back a row of walkers to the end of the street.

"Whose that?" asked Kotha.

Takashi shrugged. "I don't know, but…" he fired another shot, "I'm glad they're on our side." As he fired another round, the leader of the group continued to watch the warriors tearing apart the walkers.

The person with the helmet set the hose down, then took off the device revealing a beautiful woman with long, light purple hair and matching color eyes. The latter gasped when she saw the woman and ran out of the Humvee, surprising Alice, Shizuka and the dog now named Zeke when she jumped over the fence and hugged the woman.

"Mommy, it's really you!" said Saya crying on her mother's chest. The woman patted her daughter's head, comforting with tears in her eyes as well since she found her daughter and her friends.

"There, there, sweetheart. I'm here now," said the woman still comforting her genius daughter while her companion was opening the wall.

The brown hair swung her rifle around, slashing the walkers surrounding her and spilt-kicked two more in the face but her confidence got the best of her when she looked behind to watch Naruto slice a walker, cutting it in half in the waistline before charging at another one and Rei followed the same action by swinging her rifle in another 360 circle, severing the heads of seven walkers before changing at more walkers.

After a few minutes of fighting and exterminating the undead, the three warriors walked back to the Humvee and their favorite gun lover was about to say something, but a portal suddenly appeared. It looked similar to the one that Naruto arrived in this world but it was black and purple instead of white. The electricity surrounding the portal started reacting with the environment, hitting everything but the teenagers and their vehicle.

The blonde ninja narrowed his eyes when he sees someone approaching, and gripped Tenkaichi as he prepares for whoever's coming, but his eyes widen in surprise as he didn't expect to see one of the people who hated him during his childhood.

"Mizuki," Naruto hissed as of the name was poison.

Everyone felt fear when they remembered about their conversation about Naruto's past, recognizing the guy in front of them as one of the people who despised the blonde and tried to kill him when he was younger as well meeting one of the latter's people.

"T-that's Mizuki? Didn't you say that he turned into an old man, Naruto?" asked Rei slightly trembling her weapon.

"_That's right. He did turn into an old man…so why is he young again? Wait…that chakra…"_ thought Naruto as he continues looking at the emotionless ninja in front of him, whose eyes were covered by his silver hair. "_No, it can't be… Kurama, can the Ten Tails restore one's youth or revive someone because I can feel its demonic chakra emitting from Mizuki."_

"_Like I said before, the Ten Tails was the creator of our world. It seem logical,"_ replied Kurama, although Naruto detected a hint of doubt in the beast's voice. He was about to say something when he sensed killing intent from his former ally and held Tenkaichi in front of him while saying, "Guys…get out of here now. I'll hold him off while you go with Saya's mother back to the house."

Everyone protested, but they were silenced when their blonde friend glanced over his shoulder with a serious face before facing forward. So they got on the Humvee with Saeko entering last while she was looking at Naruto's back as she closed the door.

The blonde jinchuriki heard the two vehicles leaving, then he hear nothing more, but a chuckle from his enemy and that chuckle soon turned into laughter. Mizuki raised his head slightly, looking at the blonde and said, "Well, well, well…if it isn't the Nine-Tails himself, Naruto Uzumaki."

The said Jinchuriki narrowed his eyes and sighed while rubbing the back of his head with his free arm, "Like I said back then; I'm not the Nine-Tails. I'm his Jinchuriki, but I don't care what you think of me," the Uzumaki member realized something, "How did you get here anyway?"

"Hehe, my master used his chakra to open the portal, allowing me to travel…but he could've done it two months earlier since he felt a portal opened," replied Mizuki with a menacing grin.

Naruto was shocked when he heard that it had been two months already in his world, but he arrived in this world two days ago and so he decided to have a chat with his partner. "_Kurama, did you hear what he said?"_

"_Yes, I heard and the answer to your question… yes, it is possible. We're in a different dimension, Naruto, so that means time is either slower or faster in each dimension. Haven't you paid attention to the old man's teachings on that?"_ asked the fox.

Naruto blinked owlishly before he laughed nervously, "_Uh, I don't think so."_

Kurama growled, scaring his partner slightly, "_And what do you meant by that exactly?"_

"_I…well you see…I sorta slept through that lesson,"_ replied Naruto nervously, but the ninja was careful not to show it in front of Mizuki who was standing with a bored expression.

"…"

"_Um, Kurama?"_

"…."

"_Bud, you're creeping me out with your silence. Say something!"_

"…_I'll give the rundown about the dimension and time later. Wait until I tell the old man about this when I get the chance. He'll be sure to give that 'exercise' for falling asleep during his lessons,"_ replied the Tailed Beast smugly. Naruto slightly paled as he unconsciously put his left hand behind his butt before retracting it back to his side.

The sage sighed._ "I guess I deserved it, but let's put that aside now. I got an enemy to crush and I'll send him packing."_ He held up his sword horizontally and flicked it to get the blood off before sheathing it back to its resting place on Naruto's back, confusing the former Leaf jonin before the latter glared at the former.

"Why did you put away your weapon, demon? Are you surrendering to me?" asked the smugly Mizuki.

Naruto scoffed. "Yeah right, like I'm going to surrender to anyone especially you. I put away my sword because you are not worth it, so I'll give you a choice; you can leave me alone and enjoy whatever pathetic life you have or you can face your end right here, right now." Moments passed by before the follower of the Ten Tails laughed maniacally before drawing a kunai in the reverse grip and charged at the Uzumaki jinchuriki.

Naruto quickly drew a kunai from his sleeve and charged forward, ready to put his training with the Sage of the Six Paths to good use and what better way than to fight against one of his old enemies. Both shinobi swung their kunai when they got into close range resulting in a clash before breaking it and swung their kunai, causing sparks and resulting in another clash.

The two shinobi were pushing against each other, trying to gain the upper hand on the other, but the younger shinobi was showing no effort and pushed back with force, causing his enemy to skid backwards until he stopped a good 30 yards. Mizuki threw his kunai that was aimed for the blonde's head, but the latter countered it by throwing his own kunai before disappearing from sight, surprising the former.

"_Where did he go?"_ He sensed a presence coming from his right side and put up both his arms to block a roundhouse kick from the reappearing blonde ninja, but the former was sent skidding again. "Curse you!" Mizuki angrily making hand-signs after stopping himself for another 30 yards, "Take this; Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" He exhaled a huge ball of fire hurtling towards the blonde who jumped to the air, avoiding the jutsu's trajectory and made rapid hand-signs of his own.

Naruto made the last sign, "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" The fire hydrant and pipes on ground level creaked before huge amounts of water exploded and gathered below looking like a waterfall with the Sage directed the attack towards the more surprised Mizuki. The latter jumped high into the air as well, dodging the attack and prepared another attack as he landed on the ground, but he heard a familiar voice.

"Too slow," said Naruto as he appeared behind Mizuki once more and roundhouse-kicked the latter, who recovered after stumbling a few feet and prepared to release another technique at the blonde, but he was gone.

"_How can this be?"_ thought Mizuki as he searches for the demon, instead the young Uzumaki appeared in front of him and hit him with an inside punch. The former Leaf ninja felt a severe pain in his stomach and doubled over as he never felt this before. He slowly raised his head while gritting his teeth and blood leaking from his mouth, looking at the towering figure of the jinchuriki who glared at him. Mizuki let his anger get the best of him and launched a straight punch, only for Naruto to catch it by grabbing his wrist and effortlessly spun him around before hurtling his opponent to the air, heading to a building.

"_What strength!"_ thought Mizuki as he crashed in the building's wall, creating a hole as a result.

The former ninja jumped out of the hole in the building and stick to the wall a few feet from the hole, looking for the demon. "Behind you," Mizuki spun around to see Naruto with his arms stretched out, "Wind Style: Divine Down Current!" A vortex of wind blasted from his hands and plummeted the former ninja to the ground, kicking up dust. The jinchuriki crossed his arms with a serious face, standing on the wall.

Meanwhile in the now-revealed crater, Mizuki was lying with bruises and scratches on his face, hands and clothes as well as water soaking from the broken pipes that resulted from the impact. He opened his eyes and anger took over as he processed that the demon kid has both Wind Style and Water Style ninjutsu in his arsenal. "_This kid is a lot stronger than the last time we fought,"_ the former Leaf ninja smirked evilly, "_but I've gotten stronger due to my master's chakra within me and I think it's time to raise the level of this battle up a bit."_

_With the Group_

Saeko poked her head out of the window along with Takashi and Rei at their window and Alice with Kotha looking out in the roof hole when they heard the explosion in the distance and became concerned for their blonde ninja friend.

"I hope he's all right," said Saeko concerned.

"Hey, don't worried," Kotha entering inside the Humvee with Alice and so did Takashi, Rei and Saeko as they look at him. "From what Naruto told us about him-self, he won't be beat. He's super strong, thanks to his training with that ancestor of his."

Everyone's hopes rose when they heard of this, but Saeko couldn't help herself to worry about her new friend and fellow swordsman, "_Please, be okay, Naruto. Please..."_ The convoy continued its route to the Takagi estate.

_Naruto vs Mizuki_

"He's taking too long…what could he be planning?" asked Naruto to himself as he waits for his enemy. His eyes slightly widen when he felt a burst of chakra emitting from the crater below and it felt familiar. "_That's the Ten Tails' chakra and it's stronger than the last time I felt it. He just might give me a warm-up after all."_ The Toad Sage smirked and slipped into a taijutsu stance as he waited for his enemy to climb out of the crater until his senses alerted him from behind where Mizuki prepared an upward kick, leaving Naruto to block it with his open palms down but the attack had too much force than he anticipated.

The boy was sent flying through the air before he fixed him-self in mid-air and bend his knees to soften the landing on the building, creating spider-cracks on the wall and shattering the glass of several floors. "Damn, wasn't expecting that." Naruto shaking his hands before back flipping up to dodge a thrust kick from Mizuki, then he leapt backwards to the roof followed by his enemy. The sage took one last step on the edge, leaping high into the air as he prepares to make his next move, but the former Leaf jonin covered in the dark chakra appeared in front of him, surprising the latter.

Mizuki had a malicious grin and kicked Naruto who barely managed put his arms in a 'X' formation to protect his head and upper chest, sending him to the roof. The latter gritted his teeth as he was sent skidding across the roof and looked back to see the edge of the roof coming fast. "_Darn, still going too fast,"_ Naruto drew Tenkaichi and stabbed the blade to the ground to slow the pace that he was going, but it was too late.

The blonde jinchuriki was already off the roof, causing pieces of the edge of the roof falling to the ground. He was currently in the air and looking for his opponent across the building from him, but he was gone again. "_He's faster than before as well his strength increased to the point of rivaling the Initial Jinchuriki Form, but I need to wait him out a bit more."_

As the ninja was being pulled by the gravity with his sword at the ready to counter, his senses warned him of danger from behind again and spun around to see Mizuki propelling himself from the building across the street and already cocked a left straight punch. The side of the building exploded, with dust covering the two combatants, soon the wind push the dust away, revealing Naruto in a body-outline crater on the wall while holding Tenkaichi horizontally, currently in a stalemate between weapon and arms as Mizuki was standing over him and a surprised look.

"Hm…I'm surprised that you managed to block this attack and I never expected that you would learn Kenjutsu," Mizuki smirked as he put more force in his left arm, causing Naruto's sword arm to be pushed back before the latter putted the same amount that led to another stalemate, "it doesn't matter to me. I have my master's chakra within me and after all this time, you're still weak." He launched a punch with his free hand, but it was grabbed by the jinchuriki's free hand as well.

"So…you think I'm weak, then I'll spice it up to prove you wrong!" With that, Naruto raised his chakra level a little, surprising his enemy with the energy output before pushing him off and slashed Mizuki in the chest, causing blood to spurt out and leaving a gash, "You want to see who the weak one is? Do me a favor…and keep using that chakra from now on." The blonde disappeared from sight, and reappeared in front of Mizuki in mid-air, shocking the latter of his increased speed before swinging his blade for an overhead, only for it to be blocked by the former ninja's forearm.

The impact from the clash of the sword and arm created a small shockwave and the two warriors sent death glares at each other before using their increased speed to disappear and reappear in different locations away from their initial battleground while clashing their weapons that caused craters in multiple buildings.

After several minutes, the two ninja reappeared on a building a few miles away, standing 15 yards away from each other on the roof with the blonde holding his sword. The latter's clothes had dust on them and he didn't look exhausted at all. As for Mizuki, it was a whole other story; he was panting heavy, beads of sweat were present of his face as well cuts on his arms from the boy's sword and his muscles was flinching, much to the latter's discomfort before slipping into a taijutsu stance.

"I must say I'm impressed that you can keep up with me while I'm using my master's chakra, but that won't last for long," said Mizuki boosting with confidence.

After a few moments of silence, Naruto lowered his weapon. "You're right, it won't last long…at least for you." The statement confused his opponent before angering him.

"What do you mean by that? Explain!" demanded Mizuki before feeling excruciating pain all over his body, falling to his knees with the dark chakra dissipated, leaving him very confused and terrified.

"That's what I meant. Since you started using that chakra, I sensed that it was putting too much strain on your body and I knew you'd eventually deplete it and now it leaves your body in severe pain," replied Naruto as he started walking towards his downed enemy who sat on his knees with his head. The ninja was within arm's reach with his sword arm and free arm by his sides, his shadow looming over the enemy who lifted his head and sent a hateful glare at the blonde.

"Curse you, demon brat! You think this is over? I'll kill you!" exclaimed Mizuki as he lunged at the teenager, ignoring the pain. He attempted to head-butt the blonde, but he stopped when he felt a sharp pain in his chest and looked down. The black blade pierced him in the middle, straight to the heart and soon, darkness surrounded his eyes and felt nothing after that.

Naruto withdrew Tenkaichi from the former Leaf ninja, causing the lifeless body to fall to the floor and flicked his blade to get the blood off and sheathed it. His eyes widen in surprise when the body turned into dust, similar to what happened to the Uchihas and his former jinchuriki friend. "_I have a feeling that this isn't over, Kurama."_

"_Far from it, kid…far from it,"_ replied the fox, "_You should get moving to the others to let them know you're safe. It's almost night."_ Naruto nodded after seeing the sun waning in the distance and ran to the edge of the roof while channeling chakra to his feet and leapt across to the next building and continued leaping from building to building.

_With the Group in Takagi Estate_

Night soon arrived and the group had finally made to the Takagi mansion on the hill. It had tight security with men carrying variety of weapons, standing watch over the walls. The teens, Alice and Zeke met Saya's father, the leader of the organization in the mansion and they felt an intense aura surrounding the man as well being intimidated by him. After the greetings, the group ate and took a warm shower and head to bed for another night of sleep, but one was still up.

Saeko was in her pajamas with her knees close to her chest and the moon's light shines in her room through the window, causing her shadow to emerge from her body. She looks out the window with a certain blonde male in her mind, worried about him. "I hope you're all right… and safe." After that, the swordswoman pulled the sheet over her and went to sleep.

_Back with Naruto_

"Hm? Felt like someone was talking about me," said Naruto as he was looking out at the city with its streetlights on. He was sitting on a building close to the street, so he can rest for a bit after his battle with Mizuki. He felt proud of himself that the training with Sage of the Six Paths paid off and that the former jonin gave him a decent workout before ending the fun.

After 10 minutes, courtesy of the watch on his left wrist, Naruto channeled chakra to his feet and leapt from the building to the next, heading for the Takagi Estate on the hill. He could see it every time he leaps to the next building and couldn't wait to see his friends again.

"LET US IN!" shouted a voice.

"HONEY, GET BEHIND ME!" shouted another voice, followed by a gunshot.

The jinchuriki turned his head to the left and landed on his intended building and sprinted to the origin of the sounds, eventually stopping at the edge of a building. He looked down to see three women and a man with guns except the one banging on the door, demanding entry into the building to escape a few walkers that were starting to surround them.

Naruto quickly jumped down in front of the group, surprising them of his presence. He drew his blade and swung it while channeling his wind chakra, sending a wave of blue energy towards the walkers, cutting the undead at their heads and dropping dead this time. The ninja ran to the group's other side, repeating his action at the last group of walkers before turning around to look at the survivors.

"Everyone all right?" asked the boy as he sheathed Tenkaichi. He received no answer as silence filled the air and Naruto assumed that they're either shock of his actions or they have trust issues. After a few minutes, the man in the group broke it.

"We're fine, thank you. Who are you and how did you do that?" asked the man.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and as for what I did…I'll explain later. What are your names?" asked the sage, waiting for an answer from each of them.

"My name is Asami Nakaoka," replied the small woman. She has short, light brown hair and blue eyes, and was armed with a pistol as well sporting a blue skirt that goes with her uniform.

"I'm Kiriko Miyamoto and this is my husband, Tadashi Miyamoto," the woman pointed at her partner with her free left arm, then pointed at the woman with black hair and brown eye that was near the blonde ninja, "And she is Myra Komuro." Naruto's eyes widen in surprise when the people introduced themselves as his friend's parents and he remembered them talking about finding their parents.

"You're Takashi's and Rei's parents?" It was the parent's turn to be surprised when the blonde teenager said their children's names and they quickly asked him where they are.

Naruto held his hand up, silencing them before speaking. "I'm part of their group. We got separated from each other due to…unexpected circumstances. I know, for sure, that they were heading for Takagi's mansion on the hill and they're probably over there right now as we speak." He saw the light of hope and happiness in the parents' eyes, then heard growling behind him.

The group turned to their right, except Naruto who looked over his shoulder, to see a new group of walkers slowly slouching towards them. "Come on. Let's get out of here and find a safe place to crash in for the night, then tomorrow, we'll head to the mansion." He faced forward, receiving nods from the parents and ran past them, leading the new group of survivors to a temporary safe haven.

After 15 minutes of dodging walkers and running through the streets, Naruto's group found an apartment that didn't look to be perpetrated with the undead and settled into the building. They secured one of the rooms that resembled a presidential suite, according to Kiriko's observation. As they settled in, the parents and the patrol officer asked the young Uzumaki about the strange energy he used. The latter explained his origins to the parents, knowing he could trust them like he trusted their children. He saw the parents' eyes widen, then their expressions turned in to admiration for the boy.

"Thank you for helping our children and their friends, Naruto," said Myra, bowing her head.

Naruto shook his head. "You can thank me when we arrive at the mansion tomorrow and you're holding your son." After that, the group went to bed with the ladies sleeping one room, the male Miyamoto is sleeping in the other room and Naruto sleeps in the couch.

_Morning, Near Takagi Estate_

Takashi and his group were in their usual clothes and eating breakfast in the dining hall, which was huge that can fits the lifestyle of a king. One thing is for sure, they're worried for their blonde ninja friend since he didn't arrive yesterday and Kotha assumed the worst scenario, but the rest pushed that thought out as their faith for Naruto's survival and safety.

Suddenly, they heard a loud commotion from the halls as they saw men with rifles running past the dining doors, heading towards the main gate and became concerned about the situation.

"What's going on?" asked Alice, scared by the action. She was pulled into Shizuka arms, who showed fear as well.

Takashi stood from his chair. "Let's check it out." The group nodded and ran out to the plaza, near the gate where they saw the men putting their rifles and swords up as if they were waiting for something. The group leader walked a little closer just behind one of the soldiers and put his hand over his eyes to block the sun to get a better look.

Five shadowy figures were walking towards the mansion and continuing walking, ignoring the sniper giving orders posted on one of the towers. Rei walked beside her childhood friend to get a better look at the figures and widen her eyes when she recognized the blonde spiky hair. "Naruto!" Everyone looked at the sojutsu martial artist with her friends looking at her in surprise and got closer to the gate and they cheered when Naruto came into full view and stopped in front of the gate. Takashi and Rei widen their eyes when they saw their parents and a patrolwoman stop beside him, armed with weapons.

After persuading the men and Saya's father that the five people were not infected, the gates opened with Rei and Takashi sprinting to their respective parents and hugged them. They explained to their kids about Naruto rescuing them, and Rei and Takashi looked at him.

"Thank you, Naruto!" said both teenagers simultaneously.

Naruto looked at them and smiled. "It was no problem and I'm glad that you and your parents are reunited." Then the boy was surround by the rest of group, including the dog, with Alice pulling him into a hug and the former carried her, expressing happiness for his return. He smiled at them in response. "Come on, let's get inside because I'm hungry."

Everyone smiled at the boy's cheerful personality and walked inside the compound with Saeko walking next to Naruto behind everyone, asking him about the man that he fought.

The blonde sage replied softly, "I'll tell you and the others about it later." Saeko nodded and continued walking next to the boy still carrying their youngest member while silently thanking God for his return.

(Naruto's Universe)

_The Island, Noon_

"**This will be interesting." **The shadow-covered Tailed Beast chuckled to himself as he was watching a small portal on his palm, viewing Mizuki's battle with the Uzumaki member that he thought was dead. The Ten Tails flicked his right hand, and a shadow-covered figure with a large weapon on his back flickered out of existence in front of the beast, bowing towards it. "**Very interesting, indeed."**


	6. Return of the Demon

05/30/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 6: Return of the Demon

(HSD Universe)

_Takagi Mansion-(Morning)_

A day has passed since Naruto brought a new group of survivors; three of them are Rei's and Takashi's parents, much to the teenagers' happiness. The blonde ninja spend his morning on training in a secluded location that was not far from the mansion's estate, making sure no one see him using his abilities. After the training, he spent the rest of the day with Saeko that made him feel happy when he's near her and the same could be said about the purple hair girl when she's near him.

The boy laid on his back on top of his new bed with his black shirt and jeans on inside of his new room, staring at the ceiling. His orange jacket was hanging on the chair that was across from his bed with his watch, hip pouch sitting on top of it and Tenkaichi leaning perfectly against it. He was thinking about what Mizuki said about the time difference between the worlds and decided to have a chat with his partner, so the blonde got into a lotus position and closed his eyes as he meditates to enter his subconscious.

_Naruto's Mindscape_

The young Uzumaki appeared in front of the new cave/home of his partner. He looked around at the improved vast land that he created and nodded to him-self for his imagination. Moments later, the towering fox exited out of his new home with his shadow looming over his human partner/jinchuriki, staring at him.

"So…"said Kurama breaking the silence.

"So…" said Naruto putting his hands in his pockets, "What are we going to do, now that the Ten Tails are sending his goons for us?"

Kurama growled a little, "I don't think that weak Mizuki was sent here for us."

Naruto raised a brow. "What do you mean that he wasn't sent here for us? He clearly proved that by calling me you by your old name." He crossed his arms as he tries to process the fox's statement, then sat cross-legged on the ground.

"I think that he was sent here for either reconnaissance or… he was looking for something, but what I don't know. Unless…" pondered Kurama putting his right index finger and thumbs as he thinks every possible theory.

After a few moments, both Naruto and Kurama realized the theory with the former stood up quickly. "THE KEYS!" The duo blinked owlishly a few times as silence suddenly appeared around them.

"So you think the Ten Tails knows about the keys as well, huh" said Naruto in the form of a question, receiving a nod from his tall partner.

"Apparently, you think so too. But we should make sure we're correct on this," said the Tailed Beast laying his body on the ground, resting his head on his arms.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "And to do that, we need to capture the next guy the Ten Tails sends…after we beat him, plus I'm hoping the guy is stronger than Mizuki because he was weak that he had to resort to the Ten Tails' chakra just to gain an advantage over me." He heard the fox chuckled, irritating the boy a little, "What's so funny?"

"Just your hunger for battling against equal or stronger enemies, it amuses me," replied the fox, grinning to ear to ear. His jinchuriki huffed and crossed his arms while looking away.

"Whatever. Oh yeah, before I forget, you told me that you'll explain about the time difference between our world and the other worlds we have to yet to visit," said Naruto.

Kurama nodded in agreement. "Very well. Like that weakling Mizuki said, it was already two months in our world when we were in this world for two days, you with me?" Naruto nodded, "Good, because I don't want to explain this twice. The Bridge Worlds, like the one we're currently in, are slower than the Major Worlds like ours by 58 days and also—"he stopped when Naruto raised his right hand and groaned, "Yes, what is it?"

"Like our world? You mean our world is one of the Major Worlds. I thought the Sage said there were Four Major Worlds, not five," replied the boy still confused.

The fox sighed. "It's a secret that was bestowed upon Old Man Sage by Kami and Shinigami. He discussed this during the lesson that _you_ fell asleep in!"

"I said I was sorry already!" complained the boy looking away, receiving a sigh from the Tailed Beast pinching his nose bridge.

Moments of silence surrounded the duo until the Tailed Beast remembered something else. "Naruto," the blonde looked at him again, "While you're here, we should use this time to help you master 'that' technique."

"Oh yeah, you're right about that. But I'm still having trouble getting the basics down, even with my Shadow Clones helping me."

Kurama sighed at this. "Well, you should've mentioned it to the old man while you were training under him. Why didn't you ask him, anyway?"

Naruto gave his partner an irritated look. "The answer to your question is I was too busy with the taijutsu sessions, the elemental training sessions and lastly the history lessons. Plus, I was too excited to learn the new techniques to even bring it up, okay? Get off my back already, will ya?!"

"Don't you take that tone with me!" exclaimed Kurama in the same loud tone that his human partner did, igniting a bicker match between the duo. The shouting and name-calling between the two ended after ten minutes when Naruto calmed him-self down. Shortly after that, he calmed the fox though the latter was seething between his teeth and fangs, but eventually calmed his anger. "You ready, kid?"

Naruto grinned madly. "You bet I'm ready! I won't stop until I master this technique and its variations," He pulled out a scroll from his pouch and opened it, "Let's do this."

_With Takashi-(Midday)_

"Man, this is turning into an intense day," said Takashi to himself. After spending his morning with his mom, he left to check on his friends and was content that Kotha and Asami were getting along well…really well in the garage when the duo were cleaning the guns and the female cop recognized the several models of the guns the group cleaned out of Rika's apartment, much to the male gun fan's delight. When he gathered his friends on the porch, they watched Saya's father protest to the civilians about cutting down the walkers and forget that they were once family members or friends because they're no longer human to them.

When the rally was over, the group was surprised by Kotha's sudden outburst and his insults about the armed men with swords, leading to an argument between the leader and the marksman with the latter running away while saying something about 'Not going to be that person again.'

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Takashi looked over to see Saya standing there with a scowl. "What's up, Saya?" He saw her roll her eyes.

"Let's meet up at Naruto's room. We need to discuss with the others about the discussion we had earlier," said the pink hair genius. The black hair male nodded and told the rest to meet at their ninja friend's room in a hour, but not before telling Rei to get their parents to meet them as well since they're part of their group.

An hour later, the group, including Rei's parents and Takashi's mother, was outside of the shinobi's room with Takashi reluctantly knocking on the door.

"Naruto? Are you in there because we need to talk and everyone's here," said the teen leader. A moment passed until they heard the door handle turning and the door opening, revealing the blonde teenager in his jeans and black shirt, staring at them. They noticed the boy had very small beads of sweat on his face, concerning them of what happened to him.

Naruto noticed their expressions and waved it off. "Don't worry, I was just training when you called me. Come in, come in, everybody." Everyone complied and followed the boy inside the room with Zeke running around in circles before jumping on the bed with Alice laying next to the puppy, petting him.

As soon as everyone got settled in, Takashi started the meeting. "Saya and I brought you all here because we discussed an important matter earlier and we thought you all should know about it and give us your opinions." The group raised their brows as they were confused, but Naruto had a bored expression instead.

"You want to know if we want to stay here in the mansion or we should leave. Am I right?" asked the boy crossing his arms, shocking his two friends of his knowledge of their topic as well surprising the rest of the group of their options.

Takashi blinked a few times before asking, "How did you know?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed. "Because it's obvious, well to me anyway," he looked to his right where his female swordsman/friend was standing and smiled, "You look really beautiful in that kimono, Saeko. Do you know that?" He saw a small blush on the girl's cheeks and couldn't help but chuckle at her blushing.

"T-thank you, Naruto," said Saeko still blushing a little until she controlled herself and heard the blonde sage telling their leader and genius to continue the meeting and debate.

After a few protests from Shizuka and Asami, the group concluded their meeting with the decision to leave the mansion. At first, Takashi and Rei expected their parents to argue with their plan, but instead they and their friends received compliments and praise from the adults for their maturity and quick progression to young adults.

The group was ready to leave the room until Naruto stopped them, saying that he has one more matter to discuss.

"What is it?" asked Rei concerned.

Naruto was about to say something when Saeko beat him to it. "It has something to do with Mizuki, the man you fought two days ago, doesn't it?" She received a slow nod from the shinobi, becoming concerned as well for her friend.

"…Yes, it's about Mizuki and…other things. When all of you left, that guy was given back his youth by the Ten Tails." Naruto saw everyone's eyes widen as he continues, "Just before we fought, he said two months had passed in my world."

"WHAT?! HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE?! YOU'VE ONLY BEEN HERE FOR TWO DAYS!" exclaimed Saya, disbelieving her team member's new information.

Naruto sighed while putting his hands in his pockets. "I know that and there's a strong possibility that the Ten Tails might send someone else…today." He heard gasps from the teens and see shock expressions on the adults' faces, letting everyone process this information.

"S-someone e-else c-coming h-here t-today? Will this person be stronger than Mizuki?" asked Kotha slightly trembling with fear. Everyone looked at the blonde teenager for his next answer.

Naruto slightly frowned as he thinks for a reasonable answer, but could only come up with one. "To be honest, I don't know if the next guy will be stronger…" A grin appeared on the Toad Sage's face, "But I'm hoping that he'll be a challenge for me." Everybody is surprised by the boy's excitement for a strong opponent until Saya's surprised look was replaced by rage.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHAT IF THIS PERSON IS STRONGER THAN YOU?!" shouted Saya.

Naruto flinched and used his pinky to make sure he still has his hearing. He soon glared at the pink genius, "First of all, don't do that again, I need both of my ears. Second of all, I don't doubt the Ten Tails will send someone whose strength either equals or is greater than mine. That's why I train constantly every day, to keep my strength up and to raise it the greater heights." The Uzumaki looked from each member of his group, and all of them have doubts on their minds and faces. "Hey, listen to me, everyone. I'm not going to let the Ten Tails or his followers hurt any of you guys, especially not letting one of his goons beat him. I'm Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

Saeko couldn't help but giggled at the blonde's antic and soon saw her friends smile at the ninja as well. Suddenly a loud growl bellowed in the room, scaring Alice into jumping from the bed and onto Shizuka's arms. The duo was shaking in fear with everyone looking around in the room for the source of noise.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly, rubbing his stomach. "Sorry about that, guys, I haven't eat breakfast this morning. Want to get some grub?" He received nods from his friends and a happy bark from the dog, so the ninja walked over to his equipment. The Leaf shinobi put his hip pouch and watch in their respective places and motioned to grab his black blade and its scabbard, but a hand was placed on his shoulder, stopping him. He turned around and found him-self facing Saya with her hands on her hips with a glare. "What?"

"You can't carry your sword around in the mansion. You're lucky that my father allowed you to keep it," replied Saya while fixing her glasses.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the reason as he pulled out a small paper from his hip pouch with his left hand, embedded it on his right wrist, then grabbed Tenkaichi by its scabbard. The jinchuriki placed the black sword on top of the paper and channeled chakra into it, resulting in a puff of smoke and the weapon gone and chuckled when he saw everyone's eyes widen in surprise. "For the question going around your heads, it's Fuinjutsu or Sealing Techniques. I sealed my sword into this small paper, now I'm armed without anyone outside this room even knowing it. Now, let's get something to eat, cause I'm starving!" The young Uzumaki grabbed his jacket and putted it on while following his friends out of the room and closed the door behind him since he was the last one to exit.

The group entered the kitchen, made their food, then sat at the large dinner table. Naruto was mesmerized by the decorations and design of the dining hall while chewing through his sandwich and telling his friends about Konoha's vast lands surrounded by tall trees with multiple leaves that gave his home village its name. He also commented about taking them to visit his home after his mission is completed, bringing smiles and cheers from everyone.

"Naruto," Kotha called out to the sage who looked at him, "I've been meaning to ask you this and you didn't mention it during your explanation, but…" Naruto leaned a little as he waits for the chubby teenager to complete his sentence.

"But what? Spit it out, already!"

"How old are you, anyway?" Everyone, but Naruto, blinked at the question and turned their heads at the ninja.

"Oh, I'm 17," replied Naruto simply. His birthday passed during the six months of training with the Sage of the Six Paths and it was the biggest celebration he ever experienced. He received nods from everyone and resumed eating. Naruto took one last bite of his sandwich until he felt two presences standing behind him and looked over his left shoulder, seeing two men armed with swords attached to their belts. "What's up?"

"Mr. Takagi wants to speak to you," said the man on the right.

The jinchuriki raised a brow while his friends muttered amongst themselves until Saya spoke to one of the men. "Why does my father want to talk with Naruto?" The man on Naruto's left side looked at her and responded to her question.

"I don't know the reason. Just that he ordered us to bring Uzumaki, now if you'll just come with-" he stopped when he no longer see the boy in his chair and looked around frantically in the room, then stopped when he heard chuckling from the others who simply shrugged. The two men exited the room to search for the blonde ninja as they grumbled about how the teenager managed to slip out of their noses.

_Takagi Mansion Roof_

Souichiro Takagi, the intimidating leader of the Takagi Mansion/home, stood close behind the edge with his hands behind his back and his katana sword attached to his belt as he gazes at the city. He felt a breeze coming from behind him and turned around fully to see the blonde teenager without the men that he sent to retrieve him. Both of the males had emotionless expressions on their faces as they stare at each other.

"So," Naruto breaking the intense silence, "What did you want to talk to me about?" He crossed his arms as he waits for the man's answer.

"Two days ago, when my wife found my daughter and your group, a portal appeared," He saw Naruto widen his eyes slightly," and a man walked out of the portal. He wore strange clothing, but one thing that made sense was the headband he sported…and it looks similar to the one you're wearing on your forehead now."

The blonde sage narrowed his eyes. "So, what?"

"Who are you, really and most importantly, are you a threat?" asked Souichiro grabbing his sword's base hilt while glaring intensely at the teen.

After a few moments, Naruto put his arms to their respective sides and responded to the man's question. "No, I'm not a threat to you or my friends. That guy who entered from the portal was an old enemy of mine. He and I are not from here and that's all you should know."

Souichiro gritted his teeth when the boy gave him limited information, but knew the teenager will not budge about anything else. He looks at the blonde' blue eyes and see years of battle and hardships within them, but vowed to get more information from him one way or another.

"Very well. That's it…for now," muttered Souichiro at the last two words. The boy nodded and turned around, walking to the door near him and entered it, leaving a seething Takagi behind.

"_Okay, now that's over with, I think I'll go train some more," _thought Naruto when he reached the third level of the mansion. He sprinted to the end of the hall, opened the window and shunshined to the trees.

_Hidden Training Ground_

The boy reappeared in the middle of his secret training area. He made the hand-signs for the alarm seal he used back at the apartment to make sure no one gets the drop on him while training. After setting up the alarm system, the ninja cracked his knuckles and cross his fingers, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Puffs of smoke surrounded him and quickly dissipated as it appear, revealing 30 clones of the Uzumaki member appeared around the original who smirked after releasing the technique. "All right, guys! Let the training session commence!"

"YES SIR!" The air and surrounding area was soon filled by shouts and yells from the multiple Uzumakis as they train hard like their original to get stronger.

_Three Hours Later_

"Oh, man, what a workout!" Naruto was walking with his jacket slung over his left shoulder and carrying a water bottle that he took from the fridge in the kitchen. The training session with his Shadow Clones was under par of the Sage of the Six Paths' training, but it helps to keep his strength up as well increasing it. He took another gulp while ascending the stairs, reaching to the second floor and made a right to his room at the end of the hall.

Naruto sighed in frustration. "Man, I'm still having trouble to getting the basics down. Why does the technique have to be so difficult to learn? Eh, I'll worry about it, later." He entered his room once he reached it, and made his way to his bed, intending to relax but stopped when he smelled him-self and anime tears streamed down his face.

"Whew! Man, I reek badly. Hehe, guess that's what I get for training so hard," said the boy as he swiftly tossed his jacket on the chair next to him, then unsealed Tenkaichi and crumbled the paper since it is only good for one use. The boy placed both his sword and his watch on top of the table before entering the bathroom and took a shower after undressing.

20 minutes later, the boy exited out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, a smile present on his face. "Man that felt good. I can't think of another-" Naruto heard knocking on his door. "Who is it?"

"It's Takashi and Saya. Can we come in?" asked the former.

"Wait just a minute," the blonde male went to his hip pouch and unsealed his Leaf dark blue long-sleeved shirt and pants plus a new pair of boxers, leaving the flak jacket and shuriken holsters in the scroll after re-sealing it again, then sealed his dirty and smelly clothes into another scroll and placed them in the hip pouch. After putting away his hip pouch, Naruto then called out his friends, "Okay, you can come in now."

The leader and genius of the group entered the room and complimented on Naruto's incomplete ninja attire. "What's up?"

"You know we're leaving tonight, right?" asked Takashi. Naruto looked at him.

"Yeah."

"Well, Saya and I talked about where we're going to go after the meeting and we found a solution." Naruto stood there with his arms crossed, waiting for answer.

"Well…"

"What?"

Naruto sighed, irritated "What's the solution? You didn't say what the solution is."

"We can get off the mainland and live on an island. Islands have natural resources and it'd be even better if it was uncharted or undiscovered plus it'd be safe and isolated from the walkers," said Saya, filling in for her childhood friend. She interrupted Naruto when the latter was about to say something, "If you're going to ask how we're going to get to an island, my parents have boats in a private section we own at the docks. They don't care if one goes missing because we have so many."

Naruto nodded before stifled a yawn with his right backhand. "Sorry, guys. I'm exhausted from the training I did earlier, so I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we're going to leave." He receives nods from his friends and locked the door after them, then jumped on the bed to let his body get relax and closed his eyes for a well-deserved rest.

_A Few Hours Later-(Night)_

A huge storm covered the mainland of Japan. Rain poured from the dark clouds above, soaking everything in its vast radius from the trees to the streets and bridge. Back at the Takagi Mansion, the estate was showered by the small droplets of water with security as tight as ever and with three of our protagonists walking to the main house after Saya confronted the people who dissed her father and before that, defending Kotha from Souichiro and his men as well preventing them from taking their guns.

The trio entered inside the mansion and Takashi was about to relax when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over his shoulder to find the hand belonged to Saya. Kotha stopped when he noticed the two and walked back towards them until he was 10 feet away.

"What's up, Saya? Something on your mind?" asked Takashi after staring at the pink hair's eyes for a few minutes.

Saya closed her eyes and sighed deeply before saying, "We need to leave now." Koth were surprised by this notion and was about to ask why, but Saya interrupted him. "Now it's a good, no, perfect time to do so. Takashi, gather the others and meet back here in 10 minutes. Kotha, help him find the others, understand?" The two nodded and the teenagers went to their respective paths to find their friends in the group.

10 minutes later, Shizuka, Saya, Takashi, Rei, Asami, Tadashi, Alice, Kotha, Saeko and Zeke met back at the center of the living room in their clean and washed clothing with their respective weapons in arms, except Alice and Zeke for obvious reasons.

Saya was doing a head count until she noticed someone is missing and groaned. Takashi saw this and said: "What's wrong, Saya?"

"Did you or Kotha go to wake up Naruto because I don't see him here." Both of the males flinched at Saya's creepy tone and started shaking a little. "Well? I'm waiting."

"Um…well," Takashi gulped a little, "I thought Kotha was going to get him."

"Hey! Don't you blame this on me!" Kotha shouted back at Takashi, igniting a bickering match between the leader and marksman until Rei smacked them on the head, causing bumps to form.

"Enough! Both of you. Just go and wake him up," said Rei with her right hand on her hip while carrying her weapon with her left hand. Takashi was about to protest when Saeko intervened.

"It's all right. I'll go wake him up," said Saeko as she turns around to leave but stopped when Rei suddenly ran to outside with the doors open, causing everyone to follow her and anger quickly rose in each of one of the older members, especially the Miyamoto family when their enemy, Shido, is standing with his hands up. He was clearly a bit frightened as the young sojutsu master held her bayonet-equipped rifle closed to his neck.

"You have a lot of nerve to show your face here," said Rei pushing her weapon slightly to the point of tearing the former high school teacher's neck. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over her left to see her father standing with a motionless look and realizes that he wants to take a shot at him, so she pulled back her weapon and stepped backwards, eventually stopping next to Takashi.

Tadashi looked at Shido and gave a heck of haymaker, causing the latter to fall on the floor with the former get on top of him and continued punching him mercilessly. Soon Souichiro arrived after being informed by one of his men who saw the conflict and was about to intervene when Kiriko and Rei stepped in his way, preventing him to do anything.

"What's going on here? Why is Tadashi beating that man up?" Souchiro crossed his arms as he waits for an explanation and he got it from Rei who was tearing up. She explained about her father investigating Shido's father doing dirty business and in retaliation, the latter had forced Rei to stay behind a year during her school years. By the time that the young teenager finished explaining, Tadashi was already walking back to his wife and daughter, leaving behind a bloodied and broken down Shido on the ground.

Tadashi put his arms over Kiriko and Rei's shoulders and led them back to their group while Souichiro was thinking about what his daughter's friend had revealed to him. The intimidating leader was approached by the beaten Shido who tries to dissuade him of the lies from the Miyamoto family, but he quickly silenced the teacher as well banishing him and his group from the mansion as they were infected by 'his evil.'

As Shido's group left the mansion via school bus, the Miyamoto family gave Souichiro their thanks. The latter simply nodded and was about to leave when he noticed the group armed with their weapons and gear. "What's going on here? Why are all of you armed?" No one responded him and so he asked again, still no answer from either of them. "One of you had better-"

"We're leaving," said Tadashi, shocking Souichiro of this revelation with the latter looking at his daughter who simply nodded as confirmation. "Why? I demand to know the reason." Saya walked up to him and explained that she and her friends would be better comfortable on their own, leaving out the part of taking one of the boats to find an island.

The intimidating Takagi man was a bit stunned by his daughter's answer and was about to ask her another question when the lights inside the house and around the estate flickered off, concerning everyone on the porch and soon the entire group of survivors started to appear from inside the entrance, asking for an explanation before panic start to overtake them. Souichiro called for one of his men and one stood in front of him at attention. "What happened to the power?"

"We don't know exactly what happened, sir! All we do know is that all the power around the estate and the town had started to lose power," replied the man.

Souichiro narrowed his eyes as he pondered about the current situation they're in until he heard loud banging, causing everyone to look at the gates and behind them were thousands of walkers that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, demanding their next meal/buffet that awaits them. The Takagi leader ordered his armed men to lock the gates and so they immediately ran to the gates. The men locked three huge locks between the gates and stepped back when they finished with their weapons pointed at them.

Back with Takashi's group, a woman in the civilian group started panicking before screaming out loud, causing the walkers to bang on the gates harder for their next meal. Before anyone knew it, a slap was heard and everyone looked to see Saya in front of the screaming woman who was rubbing her left cheek while in shock of the girl's action.

"Keep quiet! The walkers can find us because of their enhanced hearing. If we all be quiet for a few minutes, they'll leave us alone but we must remain absolute silent," said Saya getting agreements from her group. The woman was about to protest, but was silenced by Suoichiro and the latter told everyone else, including the men near the gates, to do what his daughter said. Saya was surprised by her father's support and couldn't help but smile a bit as everyone stayed quiet.

(Naruto's Universe)

_The Island_

Two months had passed since the Ten Tails had sent his dead follower, Mizuki, to the other world where he learned that the Uzumaki jinchuriki was still alive and defeated his former enemy. So the towering beast had his new follower to train himself to get stronger until the time expiration for the next portal opening ends and that time has arrived. He heard clashes of metal and saw sparks in the night-consumed land and summoned his follower.

"You called, master?" asked the man covered in the darkness.

The original demon gave a quick nod. **"Yes, it is time. You understand your mission?"** The man nodded before bowing again. **"Excellent…you know what awaits for you if you fail."** The ninja nodded again and the Ten Tails opened another portal with the former walking confidently inside and the doorway to the next world closes, leaving only the Ten Tails alone on his private island.

The beast chuckled menacingly. **"Let's see if you can beat this one, Uzumaki."**

(HSD Universe)

Moments turned into seconds and the seconds turned into minutes as the entire group of survivors stayed quiet to the point where all they can hear is the rain pouring from the skies above and the walkers continued to bang on the gates. The survivors flinched each time the gates recoiled from the hits and grew more scared since the girl's plan isn't working.

"This isn't working, we should-"Takashi stopped when the banging ceased and the walkers started to disperse from the gates, heading back inside the city. Takashi and everyone sighed in relief since they escaped of being a buffet for the undead and waited for 15 minutes just in case. Takashi was about to talk when a familiar portal appeared above the fountain, destroying it as well shocking him and everyone else present. "Oh no," the boy muttered to himself as he remembered the same event occurring two days before and his concerns grew deeper when a silhouette of somebody appears from the doorway that closed after he exited it.

The man was tall and muscular with pale skin, short spiky black hair, black eyes with no pupils and small eyebrows. He wore a sleeveless black shirt with matching pants, a waist guard and the Hidden Mist's striped wrists and leg-warmers. The most noticeable features are the headband with the kanji 'Ten Tails' that's worn sideways on his head and the bandages that covers his mouth and lastly, the massive broadsword that looks like a giant butcher knife with two cut-outs; one circle close to the top and a semi-circular one near the handle and was attached to the belt slung across his chest.

Everyone heard a gasp and looked at the overweight teenager who was trembling at the sight of the man. Takashi became worried when he saw his friend, "Hey, Kotha. Hey!" Kotha looked at him with the horrified look still present on his face. "Kotha…do you recognize him?"

"Y-yes, I-I know w-who h-he is," Kotha looking from Takashi to everybody else in his group. "And you all too…he's from Naruto's world." He looked back at that tall and menacing man. The people in his group gathered information from their presentation of Naruto's history, then horrified expressions presented on their faces as they stare at the intimidating ninja.

Souichiro saw their faces and growled at being kept out of the loop and he demanded answers. "What is it? Do you know who this man?" Takashi felt the question was directed to him and looked at him.

"H-his name is Zabuza Momochi," replied Takashi nervously, never taking his eyes of the said ninja while Souichiro was confused and becomes more confused by the vague information. The latter was about to ask more questions when the stranger standing before them stopped him and turned his attention to the man.

"Hand over Naruto Uzumaki and you all shall live," said Zabuza emotionless. The civilians chit-chatted amongst themselves and wondered what the ninja wants with the blonde teenager except Takashi's group and Saya's parents.

"We won't tell you where he is and that's final," said Saeko with her hand on her sword's hilt, ready for battle despite being untrained in the ways of the shinobi of Naruto's world along with Takashi and the others gripped their weapons too.

Zabuza gripped his sword's handle and took a step forward before he was halted by a man with a strange weapon pointing at him. At that moment, he looked around to see other men with similar weapons pointing at him and formed a circle, surrounding the Mist ninja.

"Let go of that sword and put your hands up," said one of the man but Zabuza kept his grip on his sword and remained motionless with his head low, shadowing his eyes. Moments later, blood sprayed across the sky and splattered among the pavement below Zabuza's feet with the latter carrying his large sword in hand and blood dripping from the blade. The men's bodies fell to the ground, cut in half by the waists and blood bleeding profusely from the open wounds. The ninja looked at the huge group of civilians who were appalled by his ruthless display and started walking to them slowly followed by the inevitable action.

A loud shriek pierced the vast sky and echoed across the city, causing a nightmare to revive. Groaning came from the vast numbers of walkers that was within hearing distance as they walked to the origins of the shriek due to their heightened hearing.

Back at the mansion, the teen group and the civilians look at the person who blew their cover and it was no surprise that it was the woman who panicked earlier. Saya groaned as she pinched her nose bridge before she and the others looked at the motionless ninja who placed his now-cleaned blade on his back. "Great, now thanks to that banshee over there, the walkers are heading their way back here."

"I think that walkers are the least of our worries right now," said Takashi aiming his shotgun as he and the others saw the drenched Mist swordsman slowly walking towards them. The others readied their weapons for a fight they were surely not going to win.

Zabuza continued walking as if he had all the time in the world. "I was planning to let you all to live once I know of Uzumaki's location…but I see you're not going to do that. What a shame."

"Why don't you leave them out of this and deal with me?" said a voice, surprising everyone but Takashi's group with smiles on their faces and Zabuza with his emotionless posture. Then the latter looked up to find a figure standing on top of the roof before that said figure jumped off the roof and landed softly in front of him, standing 15 yards away.

Souichiro was mildly surprised when the blonde teenager landed on the ground from the roof like nothing. He also noticed the strange attire the boy was wearing; a flak jacket with a swirl on the back, a hip pouch located on his lower back, a holster strapped around his right thigh, a long-sleeved dark blue shirt with matching pants and lastly the headband that he always wears. The black sword and scabbard was also present, slung over his right shoulder on his back with a strange swirl dangling from the hilt.

"Oh yeah! Naruto's going to do some damage." Takashi and others looked at Kotha before looking at the back of their superhuman friend in his Leaf shinobi attire who stood passively in the rain.

Finally Naruto broke the silence, "It's been a long time, hasn't it…Zabuza?" He received a subtle nod from his undead opponent.

"…"

"No comments?"

"Why is your chakra level low?" Naruto's eyes narrowed as Zabuza flex his fingers in anticipation for the upcoming battle while Takashi and friends become confused. "I was expecting the strength of your chakra to be very high…Does it have to do with those people behind you?" A dark flame-like aura surrounded Zabuza's body, soon forming into a demon above him until it dissipated.

"_He let his chakra level rise to full strength and it's clear that he's stronger than Mizuki. Hehe, of course Zabuza would be stronger than him, but I didn't expect his strength to be equal to mine. Not to mention his chakra looked like a demon. I guess that's how he was given the moniker 'Demon of the Hidden Mist,"_ thought Naruto as he flexed his fingers in preparation for the upcoming battle.

"Hey, is it just me or did it get difficult to breathe right now?" asked Rei breathing heavy. After hearing the girl's comment, everyone present realize the air around became tight and found their breathing to be heavy as well.

After getting her breathing in control, Saeko asked Naruto about his chakra level. "Naruto, what does he mean your chakra level being low? And why did the air get heavy after that weird and sinister aura appeared around Zabuza's body?" She waited for her friend to answer but was met with silence. The purple-hair was about to ask the question again, but Naruto answered.

"I'll explain that to you and the others later. Right now, EVERYBODY must get out of here now and I don't want to hear any arguments from any of you. Understand?" The Uzumaki jinchuriki heard multiple but reluctant 'yes' from his friends, then Saeko and Takashi telling everyone else to follow them inside the house for a secret passage that leads them elsewhere. Naruto sensed their chakra signatures getting farther and farther away from him and Zabuza and smiled as he prepares to cease suppressing his chakra.

Zabuza raised a brow. "Why are you smiling?" His answer was a blue flame-like aura surrounding Naruto's body and instantly felt his opponent's strength rising. "_That's more like it! I can't wait to fight him."_

Both of the ninja sent death glares at each other while getting more drenched by the continuing rain. Thunder boomed, lightning struck multiple times across the sky while the shinobi continues the death stare at each until Naruto broke it. "You ready to get this started?"

"You bet I am, Naruto," replied Zabuza wielding Executioner's Blade in his sword arm, prompting the boy to draw his blade. Moments passed by and the ninja waited for a sign to signal the start of the battle and found a small leaf falling to the center that was between them. The moment the leaf touched the ground, Naruto and Zabuza flickered out of existence, then reappeared in the sky with their swords drawn and swung their respective blades.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he and his opponent clashes their blades before being pushed back by the force of the impact and landed on the ground before charging again at Zabuza with determination.

Hey, everyone, it's me. Sorry about the late update, so here it is and enjoy. Please review and let me know of any mistakes and I'm open to suggestions. Also, I'm having a poll for the first Major World after this arc, okay? Sorry for saying this again, but… please review. Thank you and see you next time.


	7. The Sage versus the Demon

08/13/2013

The Traveler

Chapter 7: The Sage versus the Demon

"HHHAAAHHH!"

"YYYAAAHHH!" shouted Naruto as he swung Tenkaichi horizontally to counter a overhead strike from Zabuza, creating sparks between the blades. Both warriors disappeared from sight with sounds of metal clashing echoed through the new battleground as well sparks appeared from different areas in the yard, signifying the two shinobi's brief locations.

Both Naruto and Zabuza reappeared close to the gates with the former swinging his black sword upward with two hands while the latter brings his massive sword over his head for another overhead strike in a double-handed grip too. A small shockwave occurred from their deadlock between their respective blades. "I'm glad that you've learned Kenjutsu. It makes my mission more fun," said Zabuza pushing back. "_More fun than I thought!"_

"So am I," said Naruto as he continues the deadlock against Zabuza and pushed back the latter and put some distance between him-self and his opponent. "_All right, his strength and speed clearly rivals my own."_ The blonde Uzumaki smirked as he tightened his grip on Tenkaichi, _"I'm going to enjoy this as long as I can!"_

Naruto and Zabuza started another death stare contest as the rain continues pouring from the dark clouds above them, creating a number of water puddles around the two ninja. Then Naruto heard a chuckle from his opposing swordsman. "What amused you, Zabuza?"

"Well," Zabuza resting his blade on top of his right shoulder, "From what you displayed with your sword just now, you would've made a fine ally and challenge to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." As the former mercenary said that, water from a puddle behind Naruto started to ripple until it took a familiar shape of a certain Mist ninja and was also armed with the same large sword as the original.

Naruto then held his black sword in front of him in a diagonal position to prepare his next attack and was about to charge until he heard a distinct metal clang and sensed malice behind him and spun around to block a diagonal swing from a duplicate of his enemy. "_A Water Clone! But he didn't make a hand-sign which means-"_He stopped his thinking when he sensed malice from behind him and quickly removed his left hand from Tenkaichi's hilt, sprung a kunai from his sleeve in a reverse grip and caught a strike from the original Zabuza. The ground below Naruto and the two Zabuzas started to crumble from the exerted force.

"_He caught both of our strikes without looking?"_ thought Zabuza as he and his clone continue pushing Naruto's sword and kunai back, causing the latter to feel the strength and force from both of his opponent and clone.

Naruto held his ground until he felt his feet sinking into the wet ground. He was about to jump and split kick the two Zabuzas when he saw another Water Clone of Zabuza appeared in front of him and gave a quick glance over his shoulder to see a third Water Clone behind him as well. "_Fantastic,"_ thought Naruto sarcastically as he was still holding the original and the water clone at bay until he sensed the Water Clone charged at him and assumed the clone behind him is charging towards him too.

"Okay then. Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" shouted Naruto as he released the technique. He wasn't by the shocked expression of the original Zabuza as the latter and his clones were blown around the strong gust of wind emitted from the blonde's body.

The water clones dispersed into water by the force of the technique, but Zabuza recovered mid-air and landed near to the gates before pointing his large sword at his blonde opponent. "Well, well, well. You know Wind Style Ninjutsu. You obviously underwent elemental training during the years…you really have gotten stronger since the last time we met. Not to mention that you didn't use hand-signs to execute the technique, so I'm guessing you have complete mastery over your elemental chakra." He saw a smirk on Naruto's face and took that as a yes.

"I could say the same thing about you. You used the Water Clone Jutsu without any hand-signs. That tells me that you mastered _your _elemental chakra too." Naruto pointed out, retracting his kunai into his sleeve before returning to a double-grip on Tenkaichi's hilt again.

The blonde Uzumaki tightened his grip just as Zabuza tightens his double-handed grip on the Executioner's Blade, indicating that both warriors are going for heavy strikes from now on. "Don't worry, I won't use my wind chakra unless it's necessary…Let's continue, shall we?"

Naruto disappeared and reappeared behind Zabuza, swinging Tenkaichi in a horizontal slash, but the Hidden Mist ninja jumped over the attack and swung the Executioner's Blade for a horizontal strike that aimed for Naruto's head. The teenager quickly ducked the attack and kicked Zabuza away before he started a barrage of fast sword slashes, putting Zabuza on the defensive.

"_What the hell? All of the sudden, he's gotten faster,"_ thought Zabuza as he continues blocking his younger opponent, before entering another deadlock between their weapons. Zabuza ended the deadlock and pushed Naruto away, putting some distance between them.

The Uzumaki jinchuriki breathed deeply and charged at Zabuza once more. Naruto swung his sword for another strike, only for his enemy to disappear so sudden. "_He disappeared without a trace! So he knows that technique as well."_ Naruto stayed on high alert as he looked at his surroundings until his instincts took over as he sidestepped to the right, narrowly dodging a thrust to the midsection from the sudden reappeared Zabuza before swinging Tenkaichi horizontally, but the attack missed its target when Zabuza disappeared again.

Zabuza reappeared on top of the roof to recuperate and think of a new strategy and his eyes widen in surprise when he felt metal touching his back and glanced over his shoulder to see a smirking Naruto behind him. "_How did he get behind me? I didn't sense his presence until I felt his blade touching me. Could he…"_ He saw Naruto leapt away from him, putting distance between them. Zabuza turned to fully face the boy before a smirk appeared on his face. "That wasn't your natural speed. For you to get behind me without getting detected, there is one high-speed movement technique that has the capability to do it. You used the Body Flicker Technique, didn't you?" asked Zabuza.

Naruto remained undeterred until a smile appeared on his face. "You're right, but I'm not the only one who used it. You too used the technique to dodge my last two attacks just now and it's obvious that you're quite skilled with it," said Naruto still keeping his hands on Tenkaichi's hilt, prompting Zabuza to tighten his two hands on the Executioner's Blade again as the two shinobi entered another glare contest.

While the two superhuman warriors glare daggers at each other with their readied weapons, the walkers were relentlessly banging on the gates again when they arrived and eventually broke through them and entered the estate. Soon the rain ceased falling from the skies as well the lightning stopped striking across the clouds and the thunder.

Naruto continued glaring at his opponent until he widen his eyes in surprise when water started swirling around Zabuza's body, indicating that he's about to use a variation of the Body Flicker Technique. "By the way, the water is swirling around you… I'm assuming that you're going to use the Water Body Flicker." Wet leafs on the ground started swirling around Naruto's body, "So I'll make this more fun by using my village's variation, the Leaf Body Flicker. Time to see which one of us is faster!"

The blonde sage and the former mercenary had smirks on their faces as they held their swords before Naruto and Zabuza Shunshined in swirls of leafs and water, respectively, from existence.

_With the Survivors_

"_Man, how long does this tunnel stretch to?"_ thought Takashi as he follows Saeko and leading the civilians to the exit. The survivors managed the door that was beneath the kitchen and opened the passage that was fortunately big enough for all of them to pass through with no worries. They eventually found the exit, but Takashi stopped everyone and turned around to face them.

"Wait here, everyone. Saeko and I are going to check the outside if it's safe." He receives nods from his friends and mother before facing the door and opened it quietly and slowly as he can. He then went outside with his shotgun at the ready and Saeko drew her new sword as they slowly walked away from the door. They found themselves close to the streets and the port is not far from their location, just down the street about five miles away. Surprisingly, no walkers were present around them and not seen for miles ahead to the port where their ticket to safe haven is waiting for them. Only blood stains, burning cars and trucks were present along the road.

"Takashi, it's clear. Should we tell the others?" asked Saeko still on high alert while glancing at the boy. She received a nod from the boy and quietly walked back to the door to retrieve the others. While walking back to the door, Saeko glanced up to see the hill where the Takagi Mansion is located and frowned as she thought about the safety of her ninja friend. "_Please be safe,"_ thought the swordswoman before getting rid of her frown and proceeded to the door where the large group of the survivors is currently waiting for them for news.

A few minutes later, the large group exited the passageway with the civilians falling into two-man columns. The people who were armed positioned themselves next to the columns, standing five feet from another armed person in front of him. As for Takashi and his friends, they positioned themselves on point 5 yards away to make sure the road ahead of them and the intersections from the sides are clear of walkers except Shizuka, Myra, Alice and Zeke.

After clearing the intersection, Takashi gave the hand motion to continue moving ahead with Souichiro giving the okay to continue onward. The group resumed walking to their way out of the living nightmare they're in.

_Somewhere in Town_

Sounds and sparks of swords clashing pierced through the night as Naruto continues his sword fight against Zabuza, disappearing in blurs and reappearing in different directions in the air. The sparks are seen moving away from the mansion to the city below with the walkers following them by listening on the metal clashing against each other.

Shouting war cries, Naruto and Zabuza reappeared with Tenkaichi and Executioner's Blade in swinging motion and entered in a swordlock for a moment before the both of them Shunshined to the roof below. The building they're currently on is 30 stories above ground and was surrounded by taller buildings that reached at least 10 or 20 stories higher. Both warriors stood 10 yards away from each other while taking deep breaths and observing each other's wounds.

The Leaf Jinchuriki had a cut with dried blood on his left cheek, one on his left bicep, another on his right forearm. But none of those mattered since his clan's and Kurama's healing abilities already took effect. As for the former Hidden Mist ninja, he has cuts on his left forearm, right bicep, left thigh and right cheek with dried blood near it, but Zabuza shows no pain meaning they're nothing to affect his fighting ability.

Naruto took in a couple more breaths before taking a quick glance out of the corner of his right eye before looking at Zabuza again. "_By the looks of things, we're back in the city. Guess I've been too busy fighting to take notice,"_ thought Naruto before he dashed at Zabuza, swinging Tenkaichi only for it to be blocked by the Hidden Mist ninja.

The Jinchuriki broke the deadlock and was about to launch another barrage of slashes, but was caught off-guard with a kick to the stomach from Zabuza, causing him to skid backwards a few feet.

The Hidden Mist ninja used this for his advantage and dashed at his young opponent. Zabuza spun around as he swung Executioner's Blade with the added momentum and full force with two hands. The boy blocked it the attack by instinct with his sword arm only.

"_NO!_" thought Naruto as Tenkaichi flungs out of his right hand, flipping through the air and over the edge of the roof, falling to the ground below. The boy recovered his footing and heard a distinct clang from the ground before he jumped backwards to dodge another swing from his older opponent.

The teenage ninja cursed him-self since he knew that blocking and countering an attack from a massive sword like the Executioner's Blade, he must have a double-handed grip on his sword unless he was in Sage Mode or his opponent was physically weaker than him, then that's a complete different story.

"_Okay then. Let's make this fight even, shall we?"_ thought Naruto as he quickly Shunshined in front of Zabuza, briefly shocking the latter before connecting an hard uppercut to the man's chin which sent him flying up in the air. Naruto Shunshined once more and appeared in front of the dazed Zabuza and kicked the latter's wrist hard, forcing his opponent to let go of his sword.

As Zabuza briefly watched his sword fall to the roof below them, Naruto launched a right punch and a left punch to his opponent's face, followed with a few inside punches to the stomach before kicking him in the chin that resulted in Zabuza being sent higher into the air. The young Uzumaki shunshined again, this time above the ascending the Hidden Mist ninja and hammer fist punched him, sending his opponent hurtling down.

Zabuza cursed him-self for letting his guard down for a moment as he falls down rapidly to the upcoming roof before regaining his composure and landed by crouching, causing spider-cracks around him. He quickly looked up to see Naruto Shunshined right above him with a blue swirling sphere and his eyes widen when he felt the power emanating within it.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he thrusts his signature jutsu at his opponent.

Zabuza quickly Shunshined from his spot, narrowly dodging the air assault from the boy. The technique made contact with the roof and shook the roof while kicking up a dust cloud, causing Zabuza to cover his eyes from the destructive force of Naruto's jutsu when he reappeared several meters away in the cloud.

The dust cloud blinded Zabuza's sight of the boy while pondering about the latter's current display of the strange and powerful chakra sphere.

"_He didn't have that technique the last time we met. Not to mention about his incredible strength in his attacks. He doesn't pull any punches."_ The Hidden Mist ninja thought before bringing his right arm to block a kick from the young Hidden Leaf ninja who Shunshined in front of him. Zabuza threw a right hook at Naruto who deflected the attack and launched a right hook of his own, but the former blocked it and threw a punch, only for the blonde Uzumaki to deflect it away.

The two shinobi continued their taijutsu battle in the dust cloud that covers their surroundings, not letting one another to penetrate their respective defenses while thinking strategies on defeating each other.

Naruto ducked under a punch and delivered an uppercut to Zabuza, but the latter jumped back to dodge it while the Jinchuriki lost sight of his enemy when he took cover in the dust cloud. Naruto smirked as he channeled his chakra in the air around him and shouted "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The powerful technique blew the dust cloud away from the roof, revealing Naruto standing a few feet away from the huge hole on the roof that resulted by Naruto's Rasengan before and Zabuza standing close to the edge with his sword laying on the ground three feet behind him.

"_He made the hole with that chakra sphere? I must be careful and avoid contact with it,"_ thought Zabuza who was facing Naruto's back while making a hand-sign and channeling chakra in his mouth. "Water Style: Liquid Bullet!" He exhaled the powerful jutsu and watched as it made its way to the blonde teenager, but Kami wouldn't allow it.

Naruto quickly spun around while channeling chakra and inhaled air in his mouth. "Wind Style: Air Bullet!" He exhaled the technique in time to counter the incoming attack, causing the two techniques to clash when they made contact. Naruto took advantage of the cover and Shunshined behind Zabuza and launched a roundhouse kick at the latter who managed to duck under it and Shunshined away from him.

"Oh no, you don't," said Naruto as he Shunshined after Zabuza.

The two ninja reappeared close to the hole. Zabuza threw a straight right punch, but Naruto ducked under the attack and tackled the former, causing the two men to roll until they fell into the hole. The two men were free-falling inside the building through the hole while punching and head-butting each other. They continued free-falling until they hit the floor hard and bounced away from each other as well kicking up debris through the room from the contact.

"Oh…okay, that was a little rough," groaned Naruto as he got up from the floor and watched Zabuza as the latter did the same.

The Uzumaki Jinchuriki and the Hidden Mist swordsman glare at each other until they charged at each other and cocked their respective right arms, then released them when they got into close range of each other. The force of the clash shattered the glass windows in the level and pushed back the two superhuman warriors from each other.

The former mercenary glared at the younger ninja who returned the same look at him. Both ninja formed a hand-sign and called forth their respective elemental techniques.

"Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" Gallons of water from the coolers and pipes burst from the floor and walls around them before it surrounded Zabuza and formed into a waterfall.

"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!" Naruto inhaled in the amount of chakra and wind inside his mouth for his jutsu to emerge victorious for the upcoming clash between elemental attacks.

The warriors released their attacks at each other. The poweful air and water techniques clashed together with equal force, which was Naruto had expected to happen at first. What he didn't expect was the force from the powerful Pressure Damage pushed both _him_ and Zabuza out of the room in opposite directions through the windows.

Naruto grunted when he collided on the wall of an adjacent building, creating a body-outline crater. The Uzumaki male managed to free him-self from the crater and landed on the ground level as his breathing got a little bit heavy than before. "Okay, that was more than I expected." He took a couple steps forward when he heard groaning around him.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" groaned Naruto as he looked around to see him-self surrounded by walkers. The boy assumed that the noise and shockwave of the battle must've attracted them to their location.

"It can't be helped for these guys." Naruto sighed as he formed a hand-sign and channeled his chakra around him, "Wind Style: Air Bullets!" The blonde Jinchuriki formed multiple air bullets and shot them at the walkers with great speed, tearing them apart while unwittingly putting holes into the walls of a few adjacent buildings.

Naruto sweat-dropped at the result, "Was that too much?" His answer was the building in front of him collapsing and turning into dust and debris. The sweat-drop on the blonde sage's head got bigger, "Yep, it was too much."

The boy figured that the air bullets tore apart the support beams of the building, but felt relieved there wasn't a living person inside of it. He took a couple more steps forward when he heard a familiar voice across from him.

"My, my, Naruto. I thought you have control over your power," said Zabuza as he walked out of the dust cloud on top of the rubble.

Naruto smirked, "I do have control of my strength. Just I didn't intend for the building to collapse on it-" He ducked a fast punch and rolled to the left before leaping backwards, putting a distance between him and Zabuza. "self."

A sudden silence descended upon the two shinobi as a quiet wind pushed against their solid bodies.

Ignoring the cold feeling over their bodies, Zabuza quickly ran through fast hand-signs and finally finished with one hand-sign. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The ground creaked below the ninja before limitless gallons of water broke through the ground and formed into a dragon. Zabuza made a gesture and the water dragon charged at its motionless target.

Naruto stood there and took a deep breath before countering the incoming attack. "Leaf Dragon God!" He initiated a right spin kick with great speed, forming a tornado around him before the tornado turned into a dragon with whiskers and charged at the opposing element dragon. The two techniques collided, crushing the nearby cars and shattering the windows with the impact force. The stalemate lasted for a moment before Naruto's move broke through the water dragon and headed straight to the Hidden Mist ninja.

Zabzua saw the dragon opened its mouth as if it's attempting to swallow him and Shunshined out of its trajectory. The wind dragon continued its way on the parallel street, destroying everything in its paths from the rapid speed of the tornado until it crashed into a building on a T-intersection, destroying a good portion of it.

After his enemy reappeared via Body Flicker Technique, Naruto saw Zabuza's left pant leg torn and the leg was covered with lacerations from contact with his latest technique. "Zabuza, I just got to ask you this; why?" The boy received a raised brow from the older ninja. "Why are you serving the Ten Tails? Didn't you want to rest in the afterlife with Haku?" This question had been nagging the Uzumaki since the moment he laid eyes on the revived assassin and knew that this moment was as good as it gets.

"…Because I had no choice," replied Zabuza after a few moments. He took a deep breath before he continued, "The Ten Tails revived me and said if I don't do his bidding, he would forbid my soul and Haku's from resting in the afterlife indefinitely. He also said that he needed my specific skills to retrieve four specific objects located in other worlds."

Zabuza saw the shocked look on Naruto's face. "I see you know what I'm talking about. But before he sent me, the Ten Tails had already sent one of his followers to this world and found out that you defeated him."

Naruto was surprised that the Ten Tails knows he's alive and his strength which brought the question; is he being watched right now? He'll have a discussion about that with his partner after the battle. After taking a step forward, Naruto glanced at a car next to him where he saw a familiar sword stabbed into the driver's seat.

"_Tenkaichi! Oh, am I glad to have found you!"_ thought Naruto as he grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out of the car. He inspected the blade for any strains or signs of stress, tear, wear or bending, but found none so far. The boy also inspected the hole in the car roof and the seat. "_Boy_, _Shikaku was right. The sword really is durable and strong."_ Naruto was brought from his thinking when Zabuza cleared his throat and he looked at the latter.

"That's an impressive sword you possess, Uzumaki. I've been admiring it since I laid my eyes on it"

"Thanks. I named it Tenkaichi."

Zabuza nodded his head, "Interesting name for a sword." The mercenary cleared his throat before he continued. "As I was trying to say; after seeing you effortlessly beat Mizuki, the Ten Tails decided to train me for one day."

"What?!" asked a shocked Naruto.

"Yes, for one day. That one day… was the most excruciating and exhausting training I had ever done in my life and when the day was done, the Ten Tails told me to repeat the training regiment until he said enough, so I did…for two months. I've never felt so strong before and it shows that I can fight evenly against you now."

"And despite that we're enemies, I congratulate you on that, Zabuza. Al-"

"However, after seeing how this fight is dragging on longer than I expected and your strength and power supersedes my own by a bit…you've forced my hand to use this," claimed Zabuza as a familiar black flame-like aura appeared around his body, surprising the blonde teen.

"ZABUZA, WAIT!" Those words reached nowhere as Naruto covered his eyes with his free arm from the sudden eruption of chakra and the kick-up of dust and debris. The glass windows of the buildings along the street shattered from the incredible force and the cars flew away from the exploding force of the menacing chakra.

Naruto coughed a couple of times to rid any dust in his mouth as he puts his sword arm and free arm by his sides. He stayed on heavy alert as the wind blew away the dust, revealing his enemy cloaked in the menacing and dark chakra. The boy knows this battle had gotten hard for him to be victorious, but he stood his ground as Zabuza stood there with the dark chakra aura surrounding him. "_There's something different with the chakra. It feels…stronger than when I fought Mizuki."_

Sudden Zabuza stretched out his right arm that was pointing at the collapsed building, shocking the blonde ninja. A blur burst from the rubble and placed it-self in the Hidden Mist ninja's hand. It was none other than the swordsman's signature weapon; the Executioner's Blade.

Naruto assumed a Kenjutsu stance, holding Tenkaichi with two hands diagonally as he stares at his opponent before the latter suddenly disappeared from existence. His eyes widen in surprise as he blocked the reappeared Zabuza's upward slash…a very strong slash. The Uzumaki male was sent hurtling through the sky and crashed hard through the building that was behind him, causing a big hole in the process and kicking debris on the level he's currently on.

"…Oh, that hurts a lot." Naruto groaned as he lifted him-self from the ground. He slowly walked to the newly created hole and looked down to see Zabuza with his blade by his side, standing in the spot where he was.

After a moment, Zabuza leapt towards Naruto with Executioner's Blade in motion. The Toad Sage held Tenkaichi with two hands, ready to block the attack again, despite of the recent result.

A shockwave and dust cloud occurred from the contact between the two blades, shaking the building to its core and the surrounding buildings in the area.

_With the Groups_

Takashi cleared a lump in his throat as he and his group stood watch in a semi-circle around the survivors while Souichiro and his men were trying to force open the doors of the warehouse with crowbars since using their guns is out of the question. They had finally made it to the port after clearing the obstacles in the streets and the ports' doors. They then made their way to the doors of the warehouse of the Takagis' reserved spot and where their ticket to safety is awaiting for them on the other side of the door.

Then the group of survivors felt a powerful surge within the city and felt very demonic followed by a shockwave and tremor. As for Takashi and his friends, the feeling was very familiar. They felt the same energy two days before, when Naruto was fighting his old enemy. Some of them feared the blonde ninja would lose, but they pushed those thoughts aside and hoped for his victory and safe return to them.

"Come on, guys. What's taking so long?" asked an impatient Kotha while looking through his rifle's scope, trying to refocus the men's attention on the doors.

Souichiro looked at him. "Since the keypad to open the doors shorted out along with everything else in the city, so we have to open them manually. If you don't like how they do things; why don't you help them instead of complaining?"

"No thanks."

"Come on, guys. We got to keep quiet while you get the doors open," said Takashi as he stood watch. With that, Souichiro and his men continued working on opening the doors for their survival.

"Hey, Takashi," the leader turned his head to the marksman of the group, "How are we are going to get the boats starting? I mean—everything that is electrical is knocked out throughout the city," pointed out Hirano.

Takashi blinked until realization hits him. How were they going to start to vehicles since almost everything in the world was run by technology and no one knows how to jump-start a boat. A car, yes. A boat, no.

"That's easy," said Saya next to the duo, startling them a little. "There are two reasons the boats _will_ start; the first one is that the warehouse is made of the same metal like the space satellites. An EMP is most likely to have knocked out the electricity around the city, but the warehouse will protect everything inside, including the boats." She received nods from the dumbfounded males and continued, "The second reason is that boats are not on gas or oil. They all have a solar battery and solar panels equipped on them, meaning they only need the sunlight from Sun."

"Wow, let me just say that I'm glad you're my friend, Saya," said Takashi with Hirano nodding in agreement. The girl nodded back at them and the trio resumed their duty as they waited for Souichiro and his men to open the doors.

Seconds turned into minutes and the minutes felt hours as the survivors and Takashi's group waited for the soldiers to open and the waiting paid off as they heard a clang. They all turned around to see the soldiers push open the slide doors and inside are their salvation; the boats. The soldiers and Souichiro ushered the survivors inside and not to make any noise.

Takashi was about to enter the building since he was the last one when he heard a distinct growl. He turned around to the origin of the growl and walked forward, gaining a little distance from the warehouse. This caught the attention of Souichiro and Hirano.

"Takashi/Komuro!" The survivors and Takashi's group members heard the shouting and looked at the lone teenager.

"Wait, I heard something. Just listen," said Takashi. Everyone stayed quiet for a few moments and as those moments passed, no growl was heard of again. Takashi sighed and rolled his hair with his left hand, "It must have been nothing." He turned around and took a few steps forward when he heard a growl, causing him to stop since it sounded closer…a lot closer. "_Do I dare to turn around?"_

Takashi fully turned around and was appalled by the sight of creature before him. It was a German Shepard dog with blood-stains around certain parts on its fur, baring it yellow and red teeth, but the most distinguishing feature is the white shot eyes.

The Komuro teenager took a step backwards and the dog took a step forward, licking its mouth with its tongue as if he found a good meal to last him for a while.

"What's wrong with its eyes? Saya?" asked Shizuka clutching Alice in her arms and Zeke close to her legs while growling at the Shepard.

The pink hair genius fixed her glasses and replied, "With the chaos that's happened these last few days, the dog must've been feeding on the flesh of the walkers. By the way that it's looking at Takashi, it's most likely that it got infected and now it craves for human flesh like the walkers."

"Great, just what we needed; zombified dogs," replied Hirano pointing his rifle at the dog.

"What can we do?" asked Rei obviously concerned for her childhood friend.

Saya put her hand on her chin, thinking for a solution. "Well, we could shoot it, but we risk attracting the other walkers with the sound or…

"Or?"

"Or Takashi should just run for it."

After a few minutes, the group came to unanimous decision. "RUN TAKASHI!"

"No need to tell me twice!" shouted Takashi as he turned tail and ran for the warehouse with the dog gave chase after him.

One of men lifted his weapon and prepared to fire, but was stopped by Souichiro. "Hold your fire! We can't risk attracting the walkers. Men, close the doors!"

Takashi's eyes widen when he heard Souichiro's order and pushed him-self to run even faster. Each step he took, the boy hears the dog barking behind him and saw the doors closing along with his friends and mother telling him to go faster. He was a few feet and dived inside the warehouse in time as the doors shut closed, blocking the dog's path.

"Takashi!" cried Myra as she ran toward her son. The mother dropped to her knees when she got closer and wrapped her arms tightly around her son, crying on his shoulders after almost losing him.

Takashi hugged his mother back after closely losing his life from a zombified dog. After a few moments, he let go of his mother and got up from the ground and helped Myra to her feet. "Sorry about that, Mom. I'll be more careful next time."

"You should be," replied Rei with a scowl look. Takashi sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with his left hand in response.

Souichiro stepped forward after helping his men secure the doors and windows to prevent the new threat coming in from outside. "Next time, don't stray far from the group. Understand?"

"Yes sir." Takashi deadpanned.

"Ah! Here we are," said Yuriko pressing a button on a console. A moment later, lights burst into life inside the warehouse. The large group covered their eyes from the sudden light and took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the brightness. Everyone's eyes widen in surprise before smiles and happiness took over them since their tickets are right in front of them; the boats floating on the water.

There are many styles of boats; yachts, speedboats, party boats, etc. However three boats stood out from the rest; they were white, had black/blue plates on the back on the rear and lastly, they were bigger than the others.

Takashi recognized the panels. "_So those are the boats that Saya mentioned. I hope they work like she said."_

"Everyone!" The group turned their attention to the origin of the voice. They found Souichiro standing in front of large supplies of food and water. "Grab all the boxes and carry them onto these boats. We'll separate into three groups of 12.

"Wait, why can't we use the other boats? Why those three?" asked a survivor.

"Because-" Everybody turned to Saya's direction. "These specific boats are run by solar energy. As I told my friends recently, the boats have solar batteries that the engines are powered up by. The solar batteries can store and reuse solar energy from the sun. Also, these boats are very durable out in ocean and in case we don't find an inhabitable island."

Souichiro and everyone nodded in agreement. "We leave in 5 minutes!" With that, everyone scrambled and helped getting their vehicles ready for a journey across sea.

Rei was helping Shizuka and Saeko move a bag of food to one of the boats when one of them suddenly stopped. "Saeko, what are you-"She saw the purple hair female looking out at one of the upper windows and knew who she was worried about.

"Saeko." The female swordsman looked at Rei. "He'll be fine. He is a superhuman ninja who came from another dimension. He can take care of him-self." The spear martial artist received a small smile from her friend, causing her-self and Shizuka to smile as well. They continued to moving and readying the ships to set sail.

Five minutes later, the group had finished readying the three boats. The assigned groups were on their respective boats with three of Souichiro's men being at the helm on each boat. They started the boats, much to the overall group's happiness, and made their way out of the warehouse and the port.

With Takashi's group on their boat, they were beyond happy to be finally away from the city of the undead, but one person was on their minds. Takashi, Rei, Shizuka, Saeko, Alice, Saya, Asami, Kotha, Zeke, Myra and Rei's parents were standing on the boat's deck while the rest of other survivors are inside. They were gazing at the city with deep concern for their ninja friend, especially Saeko.

After a few moments of silence, Kotha broke the silence among them. "So do you guys think Naruto won by now?" His question was about to be answered.

"GUYS, LOOK!" Tadashi pointed up in the cloud-filled sky, causing the teens and adults of Komuro's group on the boat to look up in the sky to see a blur smashed into the ocean several meters away from them. The blur caused big waves that shook the three boats when it reached them, causing the passengers to scream when they all lost their balance.

The marksman groaned and shook his head to regain his senses. "What was that?!" demanded Kotha before he regained his footing and stood on the deck with everyone else recovered their balance moments later.

"I don't know. Let's find out," said Takashi as he walked to the edge of the boat along with his friends to see what caused the waves. The Komuro teenager looked at the rest of the survivors on the other boats and saw they were all right, considering that their sea transports almost capsized on them.

"Guys, I think there is something in the water." Saeko pointed as she directed everyone's point of view at the object in the water. The purple hair swordswoman then looked at Kotha and said "Kotha, can you use your rifle scope and tell who or what that was?"

Kotha nodded in response and adjusted the settings of his scope before he looked through it. A few moments later, he started to tremble and stuttering nonsense from his mouth while looking through the scope and this didn't go unnoticed by everyone, especially his friends.

"Kotha. Kotha." Takashi said to his friend, knocking the latter out from his brief petrified state. "Kotha, what did you see out there?" He received no response from the marksman. "Kotha!"

Silence took over the boat as everybody waited for the chubby teenager to tell them what was that almost capsized their safe haven of transportation. After a few more moments, Kotha broke the silence and hesitantly told them. "I-it was n-not an o-object. It was a p-person."

"Was it that Zabuza guy? If so, that means Naruto won, right?" asked Shizuka with everyone in Takashi's group have happy smiles and Zeke wagging his tail and barked a couple times. However their expressions changed from joy to fear when the marksman shook his head.

Rei was the one who spoke next. "You don't mean-"She couldn't finish the sentence as she and the others realized who it was floating on the ocean surface.

_With Naruto_

"Oh," groaned Naruto as he opened his eyes to see the thunderclouds still above in the sky. The boy felt water touching his body everywhere and looked around to find him-self floating in the ocean before he channeled chakra to his feet and slowly stood up on the water. "_Uh, what happened? Wait a minute…Oh, I remember now,"_ thought Naruto as he panted heavier than earlier and felt his arms stinging.

The Uzumaki male reminisced about Zabuza pushed the young ninja around the city like a rag doll each time the teenager tried to block the mercenary's slashes. Also Naruto couldn't keep up with Zabuza's increased speed with his natural speed, so the former tried to use the Body Flicker Technique to even the odds, but that didn't work even in the slightest.

"Oh, boy…let's fix this real quick," said Naruto as he popped his joints to relieve them of the tension and strain. "Oh yeah, that's much better." The blonde Uzumaki silently thanked to his improved durability he received from the Six Paths' training, since he was tossed through several buildings and cars before crash-landing in the ocean and his torn attire is proof of that. His uniform was missing his entire left sleeve and his right forearm portion along with the flak jacket now opened in the middle since the zipper was gone.

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when his senses went off and jumped backwards to barely dodge a thrust from a reappeared chakra-covered Zabuza and his terrifying Executioner's Blade. Naruto landed a few yards away from his opponent and held Tenkaichi with two hands before charging at the Hidden Mist ninja and swung a horizontal slash at the latter.

Zabuza blocked the strike with little effort and pushed Naruto back before disappearing and reappearing behind the young ninja for a horizontal slash, but the Uzumaki male quickly spun around for block it, only to be pushed back by the tremendous force behind the slash. Naruto was sent skidding backwards to the city, specifically the harbor part of the city.

"Damn it! All of his strikes are too strong for me to block or counter." Naruto said after managing to stop him-self skidding any further. "Finally someone else, other than Kurama, has pushed me enough to use it." The blonde Jinchuriki chuckled as he was about to set the technique into motion, but his unique sixth sense alerted him of killing intent from above in the sky and looked up to see Zabuza with his sword next to his side, indicating that he's going for a horizontal slash.

"Perfect! I can launch an attack from here or…" Naruto quickly sheathed Tenkaichi on his back and formed a familiar cross-seal, creating two identical Naruto clones beside him. "…Three attacks for that matter." The two clones underwent a series of hand-signs while the original prepared his right leg for his technique. Soon the clones finished their respective sequences of hand-signs and looked at their creator who nodded at them.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" shouted Clone #1 as the water around the clone burst before shaping into a giant dragon and launched itself to its target.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" shouted Clone #2 as he puffed out his cheeks and exhaled a dragon head-shaped fireball from his mouth.

"Leaf Dragon God!" shouted Original Naruto as he spins around rapidly with an upward kick, initiating the destructive and powerful dragon-like tornado attack once again.

The two ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques roared as they charged at the airborne ninja, seemingly at a disadvantage. Zabuza said nothing as his sword was suddenly covered with the black and sinister chakra before swinging his blade and launching a big black chakra wave towards the three techniques before disappearing from his current position.

The chakra wave cut through the three attacks like nothing, shocking the blonde Uzumaki and his clones as the black chakra wave dispelled their techniques and now approaches them with frightening speed. Naruto Shunshined away from the attack's trajectory and reappeared 10 yards away in time to see his clones was not as fortunate as him when they got caught in the blast. "_He countered three very powerful attacks with just a chakra wave. Is this how far the Ten Tails' chakra increased Zabuza's power?"_ thought Naruto to him-self as he redrew Tenkaichi with his sword arm while looking for his opponent.

"Looking for someone?" Naruto's eyes widen as a big water sphere formed around him. The blonde ninja tried to move his arms and legs, but the sphere slowed down his movements because the water is so dense with chakra infused with it. Despite of this, Naruto managed to turn around to see Zabuza with his free arm stretched out…standing 5 yards from him. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu." Zabuza said simply as he put his left arm to his side before starting walking over to his younger opponent.

"_So this is what a Water Style master is capable of. Although his water elemental skill pales in comparison with the Second Hokage's,"_ thought Naruto as he tries to swing his black sword, but the water sphere was still slowing his movements. The boy then noticed that the sphere has a black outline around it and it was the same color as the Ten Tails' chakra. "_I can't move!"_ thought Naruto gritting his teeth when he tried to move again, but this time to no avail.

Naruto could do nothing inside the water prison as he helplessly watched his enemy approach him with each step until the former was standing a few inches away from the sphere. Zabuza stopped in front of the trapped teenage ninja and held his Executioner's Blade with two hands across his body to his left before swinging it to decapitate the latter or so he wanted his opponent to think that.

With a twist of his hands, Zabuza instead struck the sphere with the flat side of his large sword, sending the boy flying across the sea towards the buildings on the shore, but the Hidden Mist ninja wasn't finished with his young opponent as he disappeared with his increased speed. He appeared in front in front of the entrapped Naruto and struck him with the flat side of the sword again, this time to the sky above. Then, Zabuza reappeared on top of the water sphere and struck it again towards the ground before disappearing and reappearing on the ocean surface once more and attacked it with a strong spinning kick.

The blonde Uzumaki grunted in pain as he was sent hurtling through the air. He managed to sneak a glance over his shoulder to see a warehouse-like building on the harbor and waited for the inevitable pain that is about to come. The water sphere, that contained the Leaf Shinobi, crashed through the building's wall. The building crumbled and collapsed into rubble and debris due to the damage to the supporting structures.

Zabuza appeared on the port with his sword in hand as he stood 20 yards away from the large rubble of the warehouse. "How disappointing you turned to be after all, Naruto." Zabuza said while wielding the Executioner's Blade over his head with two hands. "This attack should end our battle." The Hidden Mist ninja then swung his sword that unleashed a vertical chakra wave towards the rubble.

Victory was seemingly at Zabuza's grasp when a sudden explosion and smoke erupted from the rubble and out came a vertical and equal sized blue crescent-like chakra wave that collided with the black chakra wave. A huge explosion occurred as a result, causing Zabuza to cover his eyes with his sword from the smoke as well braced him-self for the shockwave that caused waves in the ocean.

"This battle…" Zabuza's eyes widen as he put his blade down while the smoke cleared and revealed a standing Naruto. That's when Zabuza noticed a change or changes with the Uzumaki jinchuriki as his eyes too on an orange pigmentation around them and toad-like pupils with yellow irises that replaced the blue eyes before. "…is not over yet." Naruto stated calmly as he stood in a newly created spider-webbed crater with Tenkaichi held in his sword arm. Rain started pouring from the skies above once more with thunder booming and lightning flashing across the clouds as if nature was responding to the boy's transformation.

"_His chakra…it's different than before,"_ thought Zabuza as he stares at the transformed Naruto, "_It's huge and more powerful than before. Not to mention that his attention had changed as well. I should be cautious…No, I have him on the ropes and I should not let up now!"_ With that last word, Zabuza disappeared from the boy's sight.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he sensed chakra behind him. Spinning around, Naruto simply parried Zabuza's slash to the left side and in that direction a building's roof was completely leveled by the redirected slash. The two shinobi jumped away from each other, putting some distance between them.

"Impressive block," Zabuza complimented as he suppressed his surprise. "Before this… transformation, you couldn't parry, let alone block any of my strikes. This will, most likely, make up for your earlier performance." He silently grew irritated when Naruto didn't reply as the latter just stood there with a nonchalant look on his face like he didn't care about this battle or his life at all. "Let's see how you handle this," Zabuza formed a single hand-sign with his free arm.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The water dragon formed around the ninja. Like the Water Prison Jutsu, the dragon had a black color outline around its form. The dragon then charged at the blonde shinobi who stood there with no sign of defending him-self. As the water dragon got closer, Naruto suddenly pointed Tenkaichi's blade at it, causing the water of the technique to fork around him.

When the technique ended, Naruto saw a shocked Zabuza with the latter gazing at the Sage's calm and nonchalant face. The veteran ninja then initiated another, but a wordless and faster Water Dragon at the blonde ninja.

Naruto simply put his left arm up and cocked it with an open hand. He waited for the dragon to get closer to him and when it did, the Uzumaki released his punch while whispering, "Frog Strike." The strike slammed on the dragon's head as it sent ripples of natural energy through the dragon's entire form before it dissipated.

Zabuza was again shocked by the boy's new power and couldn't stifle the anger expression on his face, so he decided to do what he does best; he charged at the blonde for a barrage of slashes.

Naruto parried, blocked and countered each of the Zabuza's slashes with ease while leveling the ground below with craters and surrounding buildings. "We've only begun our true battle!" An angry Zabuza shouted as he swung his sword for another strike, only for Naruto to disappear with his Sage Mode enhanced speed. The blonde Jinchuriki reappeared on the close to the edge of the port floor while looking for his opponent.

"You won't escape with that kind of speed!" Naruto turned around to find Zabuza descending in the air towards him with his sword in overhead motion before the Leaf Toad Sage jumped back to dodge the slash, causing the Hidden Mist ninja to kick up a big dust cloud when he struck the spot.

The Uzumaki Sage landed on the ground and narrowed his eyes when he sensed chakra from behind. Spinning around, Naruto blocked another of Zabuza's strikes that led into a sword-lock, causing a shockwave to blow away the dust from them. "Interesting," said Zabuza after he managed to calmed him-self from his anger before continuing, "Each time our blades clashed against each other, I was expecting your sword to break, especially since I've powered up." The former Mist ninja inspected the black sword wielded by Naruto. "Is there something else about your sword that only you know about?" A evil smirk appeared on the Mist swordsman's conceled face.

"What's so funny?" asked Naruto as he pushed against Zabuza in the sword lock before the latter started to push back, leading into a stalemate between the two superpowers.

Zabuza then replied, "Just that I can break your sword anytime I wanted. Like that warehouse's roof that was leveled by my sword, I can easily break your blade if I wish it so." The Mist swordsman broke the sword lock and charged for another swing while Naruto stood there with Tenkaichi by his side. Zabuza thought the boy was a fool to let his defense as the Executioner's Blade gets closer to the Jinchuriki, but that's when he was wrong.

Naruto simply lifted his left hand from his side and grabbed the blade, shocking Zabuza of this action. The ground behind Naruto crumbled and cracked from the exerted force of the swing before a stunned Zabuza retracted his sword from the former's hand and quickly jumped back 15 yards away.

"H-how? How's that possible?" asked Zabuza to himself. He expected the boy to dodge and block with his sword, but to actually block the attack with his bare hand.

Naruto calmy replied, "You still haven't figured it out, Zabuza?" The boy started walking towards the still shocked swordsman. "The swing that destroyed the building earlier…that was my sword." Zabuza's eyes widen at this new revelation. "Let's go, Zabuza." Naruto leaped towards his stunned opponent and swung Tenkaichi at the latter, spouting blood from him and injuring him as a result.

"Gah!" Zabuza exclaimed before regaining his composure and disappeared to put some distance between him and his young opponent. The Hidden Mist swordsman reappeared on Naruto's left side, standing 20 yards away from the latter before the former inspected the new wound he received on his chest. The slash was deep and started from the middle of his upper torso and ended at the right shoulder with blood spouting from it.

"Why?" Zabuza looked up from his wound to gaze at Naruto. "Why did you get away from me? Was it because… you finally realized that you can't beat me now?" That sounded more like a statement instead of a question.

The swordsman's blood boiled once more when the boy simply stated the former was weak and won't be able to land a strike on him from now. "You…" Zabuza spoke angrily again, "Are you proud of yourself to block my swing? To injured me with your sword? While in my powered up state?" He gripped his sword's hilt with two hands so tightly that blood was about to leak out. "You're dead!" With that, Zabuza charged at the blonde who held Tenkaichi up with his sword arm like he has been doing since he entered into Sage Mode.

_10 minutes later_

Naruto still stands in the same spot with Tenkaichi's Uzumaki symbol dangling in the wind. During the past ten minutes, he blocked, parried and countered each of the Zabuza's strikes without being moved at all, despite of the Executioner's Blade's large size while tiring out the older swordsman with each action.

With swift action, Naruto brought Tenkaichi with its blade down to his right and blocked another horizontal slash from an angry Zabuza before the young Sage pushed back the older ninja away from him.

Zabuza panted very heavy with short breaths coming in and out as he glares at his young opponent before he charged him again while shouting, "Take me seriously!"

Naruto looked to his right before turning his body to the same direction and waited as his opponent got closer to him with double-gripped Executioner's Blade, intending to pierce through the heart. As his opponent got within range, very close range, Naruto swiftly sidestepped the thrust attack and swung Tenkaichi at the now frightened Zabuza who realized his mistake too late.

Blood spurted on the ground around Zabuza while Naruto was behind the latter, their backs facing each other with their respective swords in hand. After a moment or two, Zabuza dropped his sword before his forearms fell off with the latter falling forward before revealing his body been severed into two halves.

Naruto then turned his body around and walked until he stopped in front of the gasping Zabuza and crouched down. The Senjustu master looked down at the swordsman who gazed up at the former who had regret in his toad eyes. "I'm sorry that it came to this, Zabuza."

Zabuza coughed out blood. "I-it's n-not your f-f-fault. It w-was that de-demon. T-that cursed T-Ten Tails." He looked at the blonde with determination. "I-I hope t-that you s-succeed i-in your m-mission." The older ninja coughed out more blood than before, letting him know that his time is almost up. "B-beware, Naruto. He w-will kkeep sending o-others for y-you and the keys. Others w-who a-are your friends that you m-made over the y-years." With that, the Demon of the Hidden Mist's head went limb and ceased breathing as life was extinguished from him.

Naruto sighed heavy as his dead opponent turned to dust before his very eyes. He looked at the Executioner's Blade before it disappeared like its master before the young Uzumaki stood up from his crouching position. "Well, I guess I should head back to the others and let them know that I'm okay," said Naruto as he deactivated Sage Mode before the latter started to pant heavy again from the exhaustion that came with the Senjutsu art. "_Okay, is there anything that I'm forgetting, Kurama?_" He received no answer from his Tailed Beast partner, which caused a raised eyebrow.

"_Kurama?_"

"…"

"_Kurama?"_

"…"

"_Hello! Kurama, hello, are you there?!"_

"…_ZZZZ…"_

A big sweat-drop appeared on Naruto's head. "Seriously?! He's been asleep this entire time?! Why that unbelievable fox-" The Jinchuriki took a couple of deep breaths to calm him-self. "Oh, well. I'll talk to him about my battle later on." After saying that last word, Naruto sensed his friends' chakra while he flicked his sword to get the blood off and sheathed Tenkaichi in its scabbard on his back. The blonde Uzumaki suppressed his chakra level before the latter Shunshined to the boats.

_On the Boats_

Saeko had her hands over her well-endowed chest as she gazes at the smoking area where her secret crush was fighting for his life. They didn't know what was happening since a shockwave from the battle shook the boat again and this time, it broke Kotha's rifle scope when the latter harshly dropped it on the deck.

When the fighting died out, she assumed the worst and closed her eyes while praying for the shinobi's return. She felt several presences standing near, so she opened her eyes to find Takashi and his mom, Kotha, Shizuka, Alice who carries Zeke on her right side and looked to her left to find Rei and her parents, Saya and Mei gazing at the battle scene. The swordswoman couldn't help but smile for the support of her friends.

The group continued to gaze at the destroyed harbor until a familiar blonde teenager flickered into existence behind them. The boy stood behind them for a few minutes until Kotha glanced over his left shoulder.

"What's up, Naruto?" asked Kotha to Naruto.

"Nothing much. What are we watching?"

"Just waiting for your return."

"Cool, cool, cool."

Kotha and Naruto faced forward as the rain continued to pour down from the clouds in the sky. Realization hit everyone and they turned around to a smirking Naruto.

"NARUTO!" shouted Takashi's group.

"That's my name." Naruto replied before he was pulled into a group hug with his friends and Zeke wagged his tail happily. They didn't let go of him for several moments until he begged for oxygen and complained about his injuries. "How are you everyone?"

"We're okay. But we were really worried about you, man. We thought you were dead when you crashed into the ocean," replied Kotha

Naruto chuckled at this as the rain stopped once again. "Come on, I'm the Hero of the Hidden Leaf. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to rest right now." The boy took a seat on the deck and laid down on it to let his aching body to relax from a good fight. Naruto then closed his eyes as sleep took hold over him.

Saeko and the others smiled at the sleeping boy as they silently thanked him for saving and protecting them. They observed Naruto's torn attire and noticed blood on his left cheek before exhaustion took over their bodies, so they laid down the floor with Saeko lying next to the shinobi, causing her to smile before she closed her eyes and let sleep take over.

(Naruto Universe)

_The Island_

"**Well, that was a disappointment. I hoped that he would defeat the boy, but it turns out that he is strong. Really strong."** The Ten Tails said as he looked through Zabuza's memory, specifically the latter's fight with Naruto. The demon flicked his right claw and ten figures appeared in front of their master with their heads down, causing the towering figure to chortle. "**However, those two were just experiments. I want to see that Uzumaki brat handle those who can **_**really**_** use my chakra."** With that last word, the Ten Tails chuckled a bit before he started laughing manically with the echo booming across the island and to the main land.

**END OF CHAPTER**

Hey, everyone. Can't believe that it's been two months since I've updated this story because I had a bit of a writer's block and life was going on. This is my longest chapter I ever written. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to review, please!

Next chapter will most likely be the end of this arc and the first Major World will begin in the chapter after. Also tomorrow is the last day to vote in my current poll and in two days, I will have another poll, concerning about the next world. Good day from Ultimate Alcatraz.


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